Happiness of the World

press release: Co-presented with UW-Madison Polish Student Association

Poland | 98 min | NR | DCP | Dir. Michal Rosa

Sun November 18 | 12:30 PM

The film tells the story of the inhabitants of an unusual apartment building in Silesia, near the Polish-German border: Rose, a beautiful Jewish woman, and the three men enchanted with her – a Pole, a Silesian, and a young German. Two more characters are part of their world: a journalist and bon vivant, Sobański, Rose’s secret crush, recently arrived from Warsaw and Jan, a friend of the household. The film is in two parts. The first set in the summer of 1939, is a comedy-drama about the colorful fate of the three admirers, Rufina, Harald, and Tomasz. The first part ends dramatically during the war. Rose turns to her admirers for help, and they all refuse. The second part of the film takes place in the 1950s and tells the story of how the surviving residents of the apartment building struggle with the new and unfamiliar socialist reality. (Polish Film Festival)