Tadeusz Mazowiecki

A dramatisation of the workers' protests in June 1976 in Radom, seen from the perspective of the local Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party.

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

The Katyn massacre, carried out by the Soviet NKVD in 1940, was only one of many unspeakable crimes committed by Stalin's ruthless executioners over three decades. The mass murder of thousands of Polish officers was part of a relentless purge, the secrets and details of which have only recently been partially revealed.

Such changes took place in Poland over a period of several months - from the end of 1988 to the end of January 1990? Michał Bielawski, through the prism of official and underground archives, shows the then state of mind of Poles, their fears, hopes and reflections. Film materials from the 1988-1990 period are in harmony with the photographs and diaries written by Poles at that time, as well as with the messages about the changes taking place. We observe the most important political, social and moral events of that period, confronted or reinforced by the comments of their active observers: ordinary people, politicians of the government camp and oppositionists.

A film showing the social mood and tensions in the period between the end of the strikes in August 1980 and the registration of the Solidarity Trade Union in November 1980.

Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first prime minister of free Poland, takes us through successive stages of the political transformation at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. He ponders, listens and negotiates sharply. He must be aware he’s making a great revolution. What values and ideals inspired this transformation? What can we learn from him today? “Make Revolutions by Phone: A Short Movie about Tadeusz Mazowiecki ” is a documentary essay based entirely on archival materials from various periods of Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s life, edited in a creative way suggesting that Mazowiecki is conducting the conversation with himself. Dynamic animations and young alternative music give a counterpoint to the story.