Knights of the Teutonic Order (1960)
Directed by Aleksander Ford. Starring Urszula Modrzyńska and Mieczysław Kalenik.
The national epic is nothing new, but in film it has realized its full potential, reaching the widest possible audiences. These large-scale productions seek to define the mythos of a particular country, often focusing on origin narratives or great heroes. Russia’s War and Peace famously saw the nation commit 500,000 extras, along with a significant portion of the national budget, to bring Tolstoy’s seminal novel to life. What many don’t know is that Poland attempted something similar, and to great acclaim within its own country, with the 1960 superprodukcja (a Polish term for a large-scale epic based on a national literary classic), Knights of the Teutonic Order. Widely popular, it remains one of the most viewed native productions to this day, with an impact similar to what large blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars had in the West.1 Sadly, this remarkable cinematic endeavor continues to languish in relative obscurity. However, Martin Scorsese, through his World Cinema Project, has named it as one of his favorite Polish films.2
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