Operation Danube

Colour, 35 mm
Poland, Czech Republic, 2009, 104 min
WP - World Premiere
Section: Official Selection - Out of Competition

About the film

Operation Danube was the cover name for the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The fleet of Polish tanks which arrive to liberate their neighbour, ostensibly threatened by a counter-revolution, includes the old tank nicknamed "Ladybird”, which is the last to leave the barracks. It gets hopelessly lost and conks out at daybreak in a small Czech border town in the middle of nowhere. Its inhabitants are quick to show their antipathy towards the occupiers. However, when both sides realise they are essentially victims of the situation and that they are capable of reaching a gentlemen’s agreement, all kinds of relationships begin to blossom. There’s a tank to be fixed, Czech dumplings to be savoured, and there might also be a bit of romance in the air… "I’m interested in history from an ordinary person’s point of view. It’s a film about understanding,” states debuting director Jacek Głomb, who based his tragicomedy on his own theatre production staged in Legnica, Poland, in 2006. Historical fact links this Polish town with the occupation of Czechoslovakia: the invasion’s Soviet command operated from here and it was to Legnica that Czech politicians involved in the Prague Spring were brought after their arrest.

About the director

Jacek Głomb (b. 1964, Tarnów, Poland) is a film and stage director; he studied history at Jagiellonian University, graduating in 1987. He originally planned to continue an academic career as a teacher but, in the end, he became involved in the Solidarity movement. He worked as a journalist and successfully began as a director focusing on experimental theatre and performing in the city streets. He has been director of the Helena Modrzejewska Theatre in Legnica, Poland, since 1994. He graduated from the department of stage direction at the National Academy of Theatre in Cracow in 1995. He directed broadcasts of his own theatre productions for Polish Television (Mieczysław Abramowicz: Passion, 1996, Robert Urbański: Easts and Wests of the City, 2003). The film Operation Danube, freely inspired by real events and by his own stage production, is his feature film debut.