SCHEIBLER’S SPINNING MILL

The Promised Land

directed by Andrzej Wajda, 1974

 

Scheibler’s spinning mill plays an important role in “The Promised Land”. Initially, its film owner is factory owner Müller. We can see workers rushing to work: men, women and children crowding the gate from Tymienieckiego Street. We still see the same place in the final scenes, but the factory already has a different owner – as we are informed by the initials K.B. above the gate. He is Karol Borowiecki. Shots of striking workers sitting in front of the gate are interspersed with shots of empty factory halls.

Several times we also see the staircase located at the back of the factory: this is where the workers head to work, and this is also where the scene in which Lucy Zuckerowa confesses to Borowiecki that she is pregnant was recorded. It is also one of the places that Anka and Karol Borowiecki’s father pass in the long scene of their arrival in Lodz.

 

Read more about the film here.

 

Daens

directed by Stijn Coninx, 1992

 

The French – Belgian – Dutch co-production tells the story of a priest living in the late 19th century, Adolph Daens, who fights for the rights of workers in large textile factories in the small Belgian town of Aalst. The vast majority of the shooting was done in Belgium, while the textile factory in the film is played by a spinning mill on Tymienieckiego Street. However, the authentic interiors lacked machinery. The looms were brought in from elsewhere, and when they finally stood up at the factory, the belts driving them were put into operation.

The Oscar trope for this production is twofold: first, the film’s production designer was Allan Starski – later Academy Award winner for Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”; second, the film, considered a Belgian national masterpiece, was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.