AllMovie

As an independent state, Poland did not exist before the First World War. Parts of it were claimed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, parts by the Russian Empire, and the remaining portion went to the German Empire. In this story, a Polish boy's education under the pre-war Austrian occupation is the subject. He finds all the pro-Empire, pro-Church indoctrination hard to stomach but is powerless to really rebel against it except in quiet ways. The teachers consciously engage in many cruel acts, and the boy's only recourse is in poetry. Later, as a grown man, he is finally able to do something to throw off his nation's oppressors.