KRÓL (KING)

dir. Jan P. Matuszyński

The eight-episode series made for Canal+ is based on Szczepan Twardoch's bestselling book “The King”. Twardoch accompanied the creators of the series to the very end and co-authored the script alongside Dana Łukasińska and Łukasz M. Maciejewski. The book is dense with plots, full of colourful characters, with a dark gangster history, so it was almost certain that sooner or later it would be translated into film. Jan P. Matuszyński, the director, confidently guides the story from the genre of noir detective fiction in two time-spaces: the here and now is black and white, while the memories, building the core part of the film, are brimming with colour.

The series is not an exact adaptation of the book; in fact, the author himself encouraged to follow the laws of filmmaking - to emphasise certain themes, remove some from the background, add new characters or expand the role of characters who are less noticeable in the book. The year is 1937 and the spectre of fascism hangs over Europe. Warsaw is shaken by a Jewish gang led by a Polish socialist, an old PPS man, Jan Kuma Kaplica (played by Arkadiusz Jakubik). His right hand man and wet work guy is a Jewish boxer, Jakub Szapiro (played by Michał Żurawski). Szapiro quietly dreams that he will one day replace Kuma and take over the city himself.

The interwar capital is shown in a way that is far from the candy-coated vision that exists in the collective consciousness. In his review of the series for Krytyka Polityczna, Jakub Majmurek writes: “We see a multicultural Warsaw on screen, but it is not a multiculturalism straight out of a contemporary festival celebrating the liberal fantasy of mutual enrichment between the different cultures that made up pre-war or pre-partition Poland. In The King, there is distrust, contempt, hatred and violence between Poles and Jews, but also between Poles from the lower and upper classes. Violence organises the life of the town from the bottom up. From the hoodlums taking bribes from the poor, through the Falangist youth from good homes, running around the city in a corporatist cap with a knuckle-duster in their pocket, to the Sanacja elite in colonel and general uniforms, who first took society by the throat - not very successfully - and now are jumping down their own throats, also tripping over their own feet (...). ... Critics compare Twardoch and Matuszyński's series with Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America. There, too, we had Jewish gangsters, thrown into the belly of a big, meatpacking American metropolis, who for a moment could feel like kings of the city, a union movement intertwined with organised crime (and capitalists sending their thugs at workers trying to organise themselves). The tone of The King, however, is far less nostalgic, owing as much to Martin Scorsese as it does to Leone.

During the meeting accompanying the premiere, the actors emphasised that thanks to the enormous amount of work that went into every detail of the set, costumes and props, it was much easier for them to feel the spirit of the era and embody their roles. Dresses and costumes were imported from Berlin warehouses. The scale of the attention to detail is well illustrated by the fact that in the police wardrobe, which was not even opened, uniforms styled to look like those of the period were hanging, the police book was written in the correct handwriting and Szczepan Twardoch wrote the articles printed in the press.

The cinematographer is Kacper Fertacz, and the visual sphere is complemented by Atanas Valkov's hypnotic music built around motifs from Jewish culture.

The film's director, Jan P. Matuszyński, known to a wider audience from his film about the Beksiński family 'The Last Family', said in an interview with Culture.pl: 'Someone once said that my ‘The Last Family’ is ‘an epic film shot in interiors’. In 'The King' I wanted to achieve the opposite effect. I believed that, despite its epic nature, 'The King' should be an intimate story, intimate though focused on the fates of many characters’. And indeed, although most of the plot consists of gangster and political showdowns, 'The King' is a story about memory, conscience and melancholy, and how much we are willing to sacrifice for our own ambition.

Among the more important Łódź locations are:

Żeromskiego and Próchnika Streets

Near the intersection of these two streets, a bloody clash takes place between nationalists led by Żwirski (Adam Bobik) and socialists led by Kum Kaplica. Eventually the police disperse the combatants, but Kaplica is arrested by the commissioner. Everyone knows this is pointless because, as an old PPS man, Kum is on good terms with the power camp and will be out of jail quickly. Before he gets into the van he gives instructions to the other gang members. The scene ends with a bird's-eye shot of Shapiro walking through the streets strewn with victims of the clash.

147 Piotrkowska Street

One of the opening scenes of the series is a demonstration of the nationalist camp, which takes place in front of a tenement house at 147 Piotrkowska St. The demonstration is led by Bronisław Żwirski. He shouts hateful slogans against the Jewish population. Flags with the symbol of the Falanga fly among the participants. The shots of the demonstration of the nationalists are interspersed with shots of a demonstration of the socialist camp taking place in another part of the city.

Collegium Anatomicum, 60 Narutowicza Street

At the back of a building belonging to the University of Medical Sciences, the scene of a shootout between the nationalists and the Kuma Kaplica gang takes place. Its cause is the deceitful attribution to Kaplica of the murder of a war veteran. The gang leader learns about it from the newspaper when he goes to Sobenski's pasty shop as he does every morning. Realising in an instant that he has been betrayed and the consequences of being accused of this murder, he goes into a rage. When he tries to leave the pasty shop, he finds that the nationalists are already at his door. So when Kaplica escapes from the pastry shop, he runs down Żeromskiego Street (in the background we see Próchnika Street closing the perspective), and later, thanks to the magic of cinema and the art of montage, makes his way to a completely different place. In the courtyard at the back of the Anatomicum College (we can see in the background this characteristic building, difficult to mistake for any other), Jakub Szapiro drives impetuously in a black limousine, who, having realised the situation, tries to save Kaplica and the other members of the gang from trouble. Kaplica runs out of the building in the courtyard and runs towards the car, but before he can get into it he is shot in the arm by Żwirski, who is pursuing him. This fatal wound and the events that follow are the beginning of the end of Kum's power in the city, and the empire he has built turns out to be a colossus on legs of clay.

Reicher Synagogue, 28 Rewolucji Street

In the only surviving pre-war synagogue in Łódź, a scene of an Orthodox Jewish service was filmed. Driving past in a black limousine, Jakub Szapiro enters the courtyard at the request of Moshe Bernsztejn (Kacper Olszewski), a boy whom Szapiro has taken into his care after his father was murdered. Jakub keeps a great distance and tells the boy to let go of this superstition. Moshe, however, decides to go inside. Surprised, he meets his mother there. He hurriedly leaves and gets into his car. The woman runs out after him and, resting her hands on the bonnet, shouts: Murderer! Shapiro, however, adds gas and drives away.

Berlińskiego Street

The empty square on Berlińskiego Street, located at the back of the former Jojne Pilcer's bazaar, has been converted into the legendary, now-defunct bazaar in Warsaw's Wola district, the so-called Kercelak (Kercelego Square). Its undisputed ruler is Kum Kaplica, to whom each trader must pay a tribute.

YMCA, 4A Moniuszki Street

A boxing ring was arranged at the Łódź branch of the YMCA, where Jakub Szapiro trains at the Makabi club.