Schoolhouse and countryside in Zlakow Koscielny, Poland 1937

Schoolhouse and countryside in Zlakow Koscielny, Poland 1937 

Schoolhouse and countryside in Zlakow Koscielny, Poland 1937 

Zlakow Koscielny, Poland (near Lowicz) 1937: images of small town life in this central Polish town. INT: kindergarten age children playing and performing a circle dance on a small stage under the direction of their teacher. VS, children studying, EXT of newly constructed school house and the schoolyard. Images cut back and forth between school children and townspeople going about their daily routines. EXT: girls play dodgeball in the school courtyard, all are in traditional peasant dress, with large, full skirts and scarves cover their heads. One girl is barefoot and has her head uncovered revealing two long braids. Excellent footage of the girls playing. 01:03:55:00: INT MCU of a male instructor at a blackboard. VS of women farming, horse drawn wagons full of hay. 01:05:36:28: MCU of road sig" Zduny 6 km, Lowicz 17km. More country scenes, peasant women, farmers picking potatoes, tilling the soil, picking and cleaning turnips (the turnips are very large), a young boy and his father sit in a pile of turnips cleaning them and preparing them for market; alternates between the scenes of farming and INTs of schoolhouse with children studying, using an abacus, learning grammar, etc. Comic scene with an older man at a grain mill that is being driven by two horses, the man is seated on the ground, guiding the horses andd the arm of the mill that the horses are churning comes closer and closer to his head until it knocks his hat off, a quick series of CUs of this action, the man smiles for the camera. This footage is beautifully rendered and paints a very charming and peaceful portrait of life in this region circa 1936/37. The images of the children are particulary touching.