Three Days in Szczecin

(Trzy dni w Szczecinie)

The subject of this documentary is the 1971 strike by Polish shipyard workers; it centers on a meeting between the workers and Edward Gierek, then the new First Secretary of the Communist Party. The meeting was tape-recorded and its transcripts were smuggled out of Poland. Three Days in Szczecin is based on these transcripts.

Except for a few modest flashbacks the events take place in a shipyard office where workers present their grievances and Mr. Gierek responds. The documentary's dialogue comes, for the most part, from the smuggled transcript. The famous meeting lasted 9 hours.

At the end the striking workers eventually cheer Mr. Gierek. ''The doors to my office are always open,'' he says. Three Days in Szczecin, meanwhile, ends with a postscript: The most prominent of the strike leaders (Edmund Baluka) fled to Britain; another died under mysterious circumstances; yet another was accused of rape; others were transferred or lost their jobs.

Three Days in Szczecin was shown for the first (and so far only) time to the Polish public on the anniversary of that historic meeting on January 24, 2013 in Szczecin.

Director: Woodhead, Leslie

Screenplay: Bolesław Sulik

Film Editor: Anthony Ham

Principal Cast: Leslie Sands (Edward Gierek), Kenneth Colley (Edmund Baluka), Patrick Durkin, George S Irving, Neil Johnston, James Tomlinson, Barry Hart, Roger Walker, Dinah Stabb, Elizabeth Mickery (Strike Committee Members)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Release Year: 1976

Genre: Documentary