May the Nightmare Take You Away

Andrzej Barański’s third feature film — following the television production At Home and the full-length film Free Moments — confirmed his position as a creator following his own path, belonging to no particular school or movement. The director consistently pursues a personal philosophy of cinema, based on the right to individual interpretation of the world, shaped by experience and reflection. Let the Nightmare Take You is considered one of Barański’s most mature and representative works: a quiet, restrained film free from journalistic certainty, conducive to the evocation of subtle emotions and meanings. The screenplay was based on a novel by Waldemar Siemiński, published in the early 1970s. The action takes place in 1950 in a small town in Lesser Poland. Józef Piasecki, the local shopkeeper, is going through a difficult time — as a “private entrepreneur,” he is systematically harassed with inspections, fines, and supply suspensions. Like the priest and the pharmacist, he loses his previous social standing. Growing bitterness turns into apathy, which he tries to drown out by complaining about the new regime and listening to banned radio stations. His situation is further complicated by conflict with his seventeen-year-old son, Witek, who is going through a stormy period of adolescence and confrontation with adulthood. The boy watches the surrounding world with growing unease. He deeply feels the death of the pre-war socialist “Burza,” sees the downfall of his older friend Romuś, and experiences his first romantic awakenings. Although initially sympathetic to the new system, he gradually begins to understand the difficult predicament of his own family in the changing social realities. Although the film’s action is set in the grim Stalinist years, Barański softens the narrative with nostalgia and discreet humor. His characters do not succumb to ideological frenzy — the story is dominated by ordinary people: craftsmen, petit bourgeois, and peasants who, instead of trying to “fix the world,” simply try to survive. The director presents Stalinism from the perspective of everyday life, work, and family concerns, far from grand politics. Another significant strength of the film is its evocative portrayal of provincial life. Barański pays great attention to depicting small-town customs, human types, and the environment — shops, apartments, streets, architecture. Much credit is due to the excellent acting, especially by Bronisław Pawlik and Anna Ciepielewska. Let the Nightmare Take You confirms the director’s class, showing that personal cinema can simultaneously address universal matters: growing up, passing time, and the fate of people pushed to the margins by history.