Beats of Freedom (Zew wolności)

Spurred on by the phenomenon of European culture of the 1980s, alternative rock music in Poland spins out of control and explodes with a force unseen anywhere else in the socialist bloc. Rock music becomes the basis of an independent world, which the authorities and censors cannot control. All genres of rock music begin to develop - from the most classic forms through reggae, dub, punk, rock, new wave, to the most avant-garde renditions of industrial music. Hundreds of bands, thousands of fans. An endemic, underground circuit of recordings, concerts and networks is created.

Making use of a great score of archive footage, the directors deconstructed the picture of the great, seemingly spontaneous rise of the young opposition. An opposition that didn’t have anything to do with politics, but a sense of dignity and personal freedom in the face of martial law, the widespread economic crisis and a lack of prospects for the future.

Beats of Freedom is the first film in the Guide to the Poles documentary series, made within the framework of the International Program of Poland’s EU Presidency in 2011.