Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema

A complex, allusive and deeply-felt examination of the nature and effects of censorship, directed by one of Poland's leading intellectual - and much censored - film-makers. It employs a rich mixture of dark political satire and poetic allegory as it details the life of the head of an unnamed town's District Censorship Office, a divorced ex-poet, journalist and literary critic suffering from psychosomatic headaches and heart palpitations. There are ructions outside his local cinema, the Liberty: the actors on screen stage a strike (shades of The Purple Rose of Cairo), refuse their allotted lines and roles, and begin to assert their freedom to make demands on the audience. The pressure on the head censor becomes unbearable, so when the local political bosses get involved and his vodka bottle runs out, he decides on extraordinary action...