# Interrogation (1982 film)
**Interrogation** (Polish: *Przesłuchanie*) is a Polish political and psychological drama directed by Ryszard Bugajski, set in Stalinist Poland of the early 1950s and following a cabaret singer who is arrested without explanation and pressured for years to sign a false confession. Shot in 1981 and completed in 1982, it was banned by the authorities and shelved for seven years before its official premiere on 13 December 1989, after the fall of communism.[1](https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Przes%C5%82uchanie-1982-1200) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-26-ca-912-story.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Przesłuchanie*; directed by Ryszard Bugajski, written by Bugajski and Janusz Dymek[1](https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Przes%C5%82uchanie-1982-1200) |
| Production | Zespół Filmowy X, Poland, 1982; color; cinematography by Jacek Petrycki[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski) |
| Setting and plot | Early 1950s Poland: cabaret singer Tonia Dziwisz is made drunk and jailed, then interrogated to force her to incriminate an acquaintance[4](https://pisf.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Polish_Cinema_Classics.pdf) |
| Censorship | Banned by the Ministry of Culture as "anti-socialist"; circulated only on illegal video copies until 1989[2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-26-ca-912-story.html) |
| Premiere | 13 December 1989, world and Polish theatrical premiere[1](https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Przes%C5%82uchanie-1982-1200) |
| Major honors | Nominated for the Golden Palm at Cannes 1990; Krystyna Janda won Best Actress at Cannes 1990[5](https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_int.html) |
| Reputation | Described by the communist authorities as the most anti-communist film in the history of the People's Republic of Poland[6](https://wff.pl/en/film/interrogation) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The early 1950s, Poland under the Stalinist regime. Tonia Dziwisz, a third-rate cabaret singer, tours the country with her band performing for urban and rural workers. One evening, shortly after an argument with her husband Konstanty, two men make her drunk in a restaurant and take her to jail.[4](https://pisf.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Polish_Cinema_Classics.pdf) • [3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
At first Tonia assumes a mistake has been made. During the first interrogation a Public Security officer asks detailed questions about her love life, and she slowly realizes the authorities want her testimony to incriminate her acquaintance, Major Olcha, as a traitor and spy. When she refuses to sign the interrogation report, she is humiliated, threatened with being shot, beaten, stripped and doused with icy water, and locked in a punishment cell, but she does not break. Her co-inmate, the communist Witkowska (played by [Agnieszka Holland](https://www.edgepedia.org/agnieszka-holland)), believes Tonia should plead guilty because "people's government cannot be wrong".[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
Shown a statement admitting marital infidelity, her husband files for divorce. Lonely and without support, Tonia attempts suicide and is taken to hospital, where on [Christmas Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/christmas-eve) she is visited by Lieutenant Morawski, who has taken over the interrogations. They have a sexual encounter and she becomes pregnant, promising not to reveal the father's identity. She learns that Major Olcha has been shot, and gives birth to a daughter who is taken from her a few months later. After Stalin's death, Morawski tells her she will soon be released and where her daughter is staying.[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
The Washington Post's 1991 review describes the ordeal in similar terms: starved, confined, and under constant physical and psychological torture with confessions repeatedly thrust before her, Tonia refuses to confess to trumped-up charges and survives five years of imprisonment.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/01/12/the-rape-of-the-spirit/64885a52-5f37-4cfd-87e9-849950f6ad41/)
## Cast and crew
Krystyna Janda plays Antonina "Tonia" Dziwisz, with Adam Ferency as Lieutenant Tadeusz Morawski, Janusz Gajos as Major Zawada "Kąpielowy", Agnieszka Holland as the communist prisoner Witkowska, Anna Romantowska as Mira Szejnert, Bożena Dykiel as Honorata, and Olgierd Łukaszewicz as Tonia's husband Konstanty. The film was produced by Zespół Filmowy X with executive producer Tadeusz Drewno, photographed by Jacek Petrycki and edited by Katarzyna Maciejko.[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski) • [8](https://m.akademiapolskiegofilmu.pl/en/historia-polskiego-filmu/films/interrogation/75)
## Production and censorship
Bugajski made the film during the short-lived thaw that followed the rise of [Solidarity](https://www.edgepedia.org/solidarity). It was actually shot in 1981, completed in 1982, and then summarily banned by the Ministry of Culture for being "anti-socialist"; General Jaruzelski declared martial law before editing was finished.[2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-26-ca-912-story.html) • [9](https://notcoming.com/reviews/interrogation/) The authorities shelved it right after its pre-release review. In the fallout, the X Film Group, the production unit founded by [Andrzej Wajda](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrzej-wajda), was dissolved in 1982, and Bugajski emigrated to Canada in 1985.[6](https://wff.pl/en/film/interrogation) • [10](https://culture.pl/en/article/the-most-powerful-films-from-beyond-the-iron-curtain)
For years the film circulated only in black-and-white video copies, which gave it a legendary reputation inside Poland; the director escaped to Canada with an illegal video copy and had it shown at festivals, including a video screening at the 1989 Toronto Film Festival.[9](https://notcoming.com/reviews/interrogation/) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-26-ca-912-story.html) The communist authorities had judged the film the most anti-communist in the history of the People's Republic of Poland.[6](https://wff.pl/en/film/interrogation)
## Release and reception
After the return to democracy, the film received its official premiere in Warsaw on 13 December 1989, exactly seven years after the announcement of martial law.[1](https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Przes%C5%82uchanie-1982-1200) • [5](https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_int.html) At the following year's Cannes Film Festival it was nominated for the Golden Palm and Janda won the Best Actress Award.[5](https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_int.html) At the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia, Bugajski received the Journalists Award and Audience Award in 1989, and in 1990 Janda, Gajos, and Anna Romantowska took Special Jury Awards (Gdańsk Golden Lions); Bugajski also won a Silver Hugo at Chicago in 1990.[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
Critics placed the film in a tradition of confronting the Stalinist period. The [British Council](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-council)'s essay on Polish cinema lists it among period dramas that dealt far more confrontationally with the Stalinist years than had previously been permitted, alongside Wojciech Marczewski's *Shivers* (*Dreszcze*, 1981).[11](https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/3593_bc_uk-poland_essay_series_aw-for_screen_use_0.pdf) Time Out called it a period film twice over, made in 1982 and set in 1951, and noted its Kafka and Orwell resonances in the shifting power plays between Tonia and her interrogators.[12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/interrogation) Culture.pl's survey of films from behind the [Iron Curtain](https://www.edgepedia.org/iron-curtain) describes it as the most visceral portrayal of communist terror.[10](https://culture.pl/en/article/the-most-powerful-films-from-beyond-the-iron-curtain)
## Historical basis
The experiences of Tonia Dziwisz are based on those of Tonia Lechman, arrested by the security police in the early 1950s and imprisoned for five years, although the film does not make the length of imprisonment clear.[9](https://notcoming.com/reviews/interrogation/) Culture.pl notes the historical backdrop of the so-called splinter cases of the 1950s, in which the main case was brought against General Stanisław Tatar and nine senior officers; the fiction adds the imprisoned performer expected to confess to acting as an intermediary in espionage.[3](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
## Later availability
Reported running times differ among sources: 111 minutes (Second Run DVD and the Polish Film Academy), 114 minutes (The Guardian), 116 minutes (the Polish Film Institute and Time Out), 117 minutes (Vinegar Syndrome), and 1h 51m or 2h 2m on aggregators.[5](https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_int.html) • [13](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/91208/interrogation) • [4](https://pisf.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Polish_Cinema_Classics.pdf) • [14](https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/interrogation) The Polish Film Institute lists a 2K restoration from 2012, with rights held by Studio Filmowe ZEBRA.[4](https://pisf.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Polish_Cinema_Classics.pdf) Vinegar Syndrome Labs released a newly restored Blu-ray (VSL-011) with a 48-minute making-of documentary, "Negatives Don't Burn", featuring interviews with Janda, Petrycki, Holland, Łukaszewicz, and Bugajski's widow Maria Mamona.[14](https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/interrogation)
## References
1. [Przesłuchanie (1982), Filmweb](https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Przes%C5%82uchanie-1982-1200)
2. [Sheila Benson, "'Interrogation': Janda's Arresting Performance", Los Angeles Times, 26 September 1990](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-26-ca-912-story.html)
3. [Interrogation – Ryszard Bugajski, Culture.pl](https://culture.pl/en/work/interrogation-ryszard-bugajski)
4. [Interrogation / Przesłuchanie, Polish Film Institute, Polish Cinema Classics](https://pisf.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Polish_Cinema_Classics.pdf)
5. [Second Run DVD – Interrogation](https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_more_int.html)
6. [Interrogation, Warsaw Film Foundation](https://wff.pl/en/film/interrogation)
7. [Rita Kempley, "The Rape of the Spirit", The Washington Post, 1991](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1991/01/12/the-rape-of-the-spirit/64885a52-5f37-4cfd-87e9-849950f6ad41/)
8. [Interrogation (1982), Polish Film Academy, History of Polish Cinema](https://m.akademiapolskiegofilmu.pl/en/historia-polskiego-filmu/films/interrogation/75)
9. [Ian Johnston, review of Interrogation, Not Coming to a Theater Near You, 2006](https://notcoming.com/reviews/interrogation/)
10. [The Most Powerful Films From Beyond the Iron Curtain, Culture.pl](https://culture.pl/en/article/the-most-powerful-films-from-beyond-the-iron-curtain)
11. [British Council, UK–Poland essay series on Polish cinema](https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/3593_bc_uk-poland_essay_series_aw-for_screen_use_0.pdf)
12. [Interrogation review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/interrogation)
13. [Interrogation, The Guardian film page](https://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/91208/interrogation)
14. [Interrogation, Vinegar Syndrome](https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/interrogation)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license