One Day in People's Poland 2005

Shrewdly mixing found footage, historical record and dramatised re-creation, One Day in People’s Poland envisions a typical day in the life of Polish citizenry during the Cold War era. Nothing much may happen but the atmosphere of oppression is palpable: the most banal events are under constant surveillance and damning data is being accumulated for files. — Sandra Reid

“Drawing on relentlessly drab B&W footage from government and media archives, Drygas and editor Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk cleverly shape the material to represent an average day – specifically, Sept. 27, 1962 – in Poland under Communist rule. The footage serves to illustrate – often with uncanny aptness – a variety of narratives drawn from letters, radio scripts, news reports and police surveillance. The picture occasionally turns darkly humorous as bland street scenes are underscored by sternly meticulous secret police reports on activities of suspected subversives… Overall, however, One Day in People’s Poland is serious and sobering in its ingenious rendering of a repressed and paranoid society." — Joe Leydon, Variety