This movie came out right after Poland got out of comunism, and its pretty apparent. It has many flaws of a communist era polish production, like terrible sound production, and weird pacing, and quite few gags making fun of polish society from the PRL.

Especially off putting are the parts where people sing. Handling these types of scenes in this way was a norm when this movie came out, and i get that it was supposed to be unrealistic, but the scenes could have more pop. There are many things in this movie that dont hold up to international standards.

Still there where many things i loved about this movie. Like the fact that the movie doesnt just make fun of communism. It asks smart questions about the meaning of art, and personal freedom. The movie looks beyond, and in this way it is similar to "Master and Margaret".

The way it confronts the regime with imposibility seems to be inspired by Bulgakovs book. But its not a copy and the movie is amazingly creative. Thats what kept me hooked. I believe the creativity and the ideas captured to be the main reason this movie is worth watching.

"Ucieczka z kina 'Wolnosc'" is a very blatant critic to the 'parent' system that decides to control everything, from freedom of speech, to art, through a story that plays with breaking the fourth wall... inside the movie.

"Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema" (in its translated English title) goes around a censor that is a little bit tired of everything. Suddenly he finds himself in a little bit of a hole when the characters of a movie that had been approved by the censors and allowed to be shown on cinemas take a life of their own and rebel, just chatting around instead of continuing with the plot. Our censor goes to the cinema, and suddenly, the characters seem to take a special interest in him.

Cue not very subtle critic of censorship, control, the lack of freedom in some societies (in this case the 80s Poland) and the need for art and creativity to be free, critical and a thorn in the side of any system.

It all does for an interesting movie, with good acting, gloomy atmosphere and not very original but good ideas. However the pace is a little bit slow, and the movie, even if it lasts less than one hour and a half, feels a little bit longer than that. Close to the end, things get more rhythm and the psychological part gains weight, which gives more gravitas to the film.

If you like your film with some tongue-in-cheek, wink-wink moments, and a critique of the status quo, you will enjoy this one.

This movie was released in 1990 at the end of the Communist regime in Poland. The plot: Rabkiewicz is a government censor. A movie called Daybreak is being projected at the Liberty Cinema (Daybreak looks like the second part of Douglas Sirk's Magificent Obsession). Characters in Daybreak are beginning to talk to the theater audience. At first they shed their screen personae and complain about their private and professional lives (there are some laughs in the first fifteen minutes). Later, not surprisingly, they talk to Rabkiewicz making rather obvious and declamatory points about the evils of censorship, oppressive regimes etc. which provokes a rather predictable reaction of the authorities. Since this is not the stuff that could maintain your interest for the rest of the film, secondary characters are introduced that don't add much to the tale.

Obviously, screen-characters-come-to-life spells "Purple Rose of Cairo", thus Woody Allen's movie is brought into play, but it is just an add-on; it fails to connect with the plot in any significant way.

This film could have been an opportunity for an in-depth study of censorship and of one of its paradoxes; under the Communist regime Poland was a powerhouse of world cinema. This evaluation can hardly be extended to the present Polish film industry where censorship is supposedly absent. The evolution-in-reverse can be seen in the career of Poland's most famous director, Andrzej Wajda. Under Communism and attendant censorship he managed to film masterpieces like Kanal (1957), Ashes and Diamonds (1958), Landscape after Battle (1970), Man of Marble (1977) and Man of Iron (1981), the last two not particularly complimentary about the regime. Under freedom and democracy Wajda ended up pandering to broad tasteless comedy and/or crude nationalism as in The Revenge (2002) and Pan Tadeusz (1999). Another case in point is Wojciech Marczewski, the director of this movie, whose works Zmory (1979) and Dreszcze (1981) are far superior. Perhaps, the restrictions generated by the profit motive are a powerful censorship too.