Eighth Day Theatre

a film by Bo Persson & Joanna Helander

"Like Ariane Mnouchnike´s film on Molière, it is a remarkable depiction of
theatre as life and life as theatre, an inspired work about inspiration."
Erland Josephson

The film is an authentic human drama about theatre and freedom, about exile
and revolution in the on-going metamorphosis of Europe We accompany a
legendary Polish theatre compnay in the period before, during and after the
upheavals in Eastern Europe. During the 1980´s, the company is forbidden to
pursue its profession in Poland and is forced to present its plays
underground; in selected monasteries and churches. Several members of the
company succeed in leaving Poland and start touring Western Europe. Years
pass before the entire company can be reunited in the West. The company then
journeys from country to country, constantly facing new existential and
psychological trials. Is their exile temporary or permanent? How will
Western Europe react to the company´s merciless depiction of the East
European apocalypse?
Finally, the totalitarian glacier in the East begins to melt. Censorship in
Poland eases up. Solidarity forces the collapse of the communist state, and
the Eighth Day Theatre returns to Poland in rapid and radical transition.
Filmed in Poland, Sweden, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany.

Original title: Teater Åttonde Dagen
Directors & Screenwriters: Joanna Helander, Bo Persson
Directors of Photography: Jacek Petrycki, Jacek Blawut a.o.
Sound: Owe Svensson, Krszysztof Sucholdolski
Editors: Ewa Smal, Dorota Wardeszkiewicz, Katarzyna Maciejko-Kowalczyk
Music: Zygmunt Konieczny a.o.
Swedish voice: Stina Ekblad
German voice: Jutta Lampe
French voice: Dominique Sanda
Produced by Kino Koszyk HB in co-operation with the Swedish Film Institute,
Swedish Televison & ARTE
Year of production: 1992