K O R

The precursor of Solidarnosc, the KOR (Komitet Obrony Robotnikôw – Workers’ Defence Committee) was founded in 1976, in the wake of a wildcat strike to protest against soaring food prices. The KOR, which claimed to follow Christian ethics but with no god, was to federate the workers’ movement and pave the way for a free Polish trades union movement. One year after the creation of Solidarnosc, the KOR disbanded, considering that it had fulfilled its mission. Joanna Grudzinska’s film traces this little known history of the social struggles in Poland, revisiting places and going back in time with the movement’s founders, Jan Litynski, Henryk Wujec and Joanna Szczesna, who root out from old cardboard boxes parchment-like copies of Robotnik (The Worker), faded tracts, and preciously preserved stencils. (Yann Lardeau)