The Polish Bride
The Polish Bride
| 26 May 1998 (USA)
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Drama on the dawning love between a Polish woman and a farmer. Anna is forced to work in a brothel, but manages to escape. She's found, exhausted and scared, by Henk (the farmer) who offers her a place to stay, but her past chases her.

Reviews
SpunkySelfTwitter

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

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ChanFamous

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

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Billie Morin

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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Nicolas

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

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MrBlondee

I'm from the countryside of Groningen, where this magnificent film is shot. If you live here, you know there is some kind of strange and pleasant atmosphere floating on it's land..... The Algerian director Traïda showed that feeling spotless. The images of the endlessly flat open land and the little forests growing in it are perfect, the light and sky are done heavenly and very warm, something I miss in a lot of Dutch films. (this is personally by far the best Dutch flick ever) The story is about a typical lonely Groninger farmer living his life harvesting potatoes and mourning over the loss he has lived. Then all of the sudden a pretty Polish girl falls literally in his life after escaping from her pimp boss. The story is about the love that develops between the two and the changes they both have to go through to let it fit. I won't spoil it for you, just watch this amazing film and be open for the truly amazing beauty of the Groninger land and it's story.Extremely recommendable for everyone around the world. A+ 10/10

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psteele

I was thrown off balance during The Polish Bride, when Anna's "employers" return to the farm and Henk kills one with a shotgun. Even though they had worked him over and killed his dog on their previous visit, the sudden violence was a shock and seemed too improbable. It wasn't just that Henk had not involved the police but that he when he fired it wasn't quite self-defense. He didn't try to drive the men away by threatening them and didn't wait for them to fire first or even point a gun at him. He just came right out and blew the man away, apparently having made up his mind there was no other way to deal with these men. Apparently they wanted Anna, a Polish immigrant, to work as a prostitute, but even this is little explained, and one of them was the man who had raped Anna, but again, the movie takes little pains to let us know this is the same man. So, it's quite a twist to suddenly be watching a crime movie. Up to this point it's been a characteristically European drama in which the last thing you expect is this kind of violence. A young man from Holland in the audience commented that it's not at all unusual for the rural Dutch to deal with problems in such a way, without involving the police, whom, he said, are mostly useless in any event, if only because such crimes are so rare.After Anna bludgeons the second man, the excruciatingly slow courtship between them suddenly bursts into passion, and they have sex on the floor next to the bloody body of the man just gruesomely killed. One surprise after another. So they've finally broken the last bit of ice between them and have become a couple? No, surprise again. They retire to their separate rooms and she leaves mysteriously for Poland before returning, if it's not Henk's dream, with her daughter. So are they going to live happily ever after on a farm with the graves of two slain gangsters? Who would want to think this is emotionally possible, even if it were realistic in that community? The inherent unsatisfactoriness of such an ending makes you look for other meanings, but without such an ending, the ironies and bizarre darkness of the film only seem greater. Whereas Under the Sun leaves you feeling there's something strong and decent in the troubled human spirit, The Polish Bride leaves you in some doubt.The fascinating elements of this film are all the things that are left unexplained, the way we have to guess, interpret and imagine what's going on behind the events and gestures and expressions we witness. But probably too much is left unsaid. And not just the fact that Anna's employers are underworld figures despite the legality of prostitution in Holland. If Anna is afraid of intimacy with Henk because of having been raped, she doesn't show it, or the movie doesn't let her show it. Her emotional state seems to heal faster than the wound over her eye, and she becomes so comfortable with Henk so quickly, that it's his sexual abstinence that has us more puzzled.One of the effective and priceless scenes is the meal in which a mother-like Anna officiously schools Henk in her etiquette of eating and praying and Henk nearly erupts in rage and frustration, unable to understand why he is allowing her of all people to treat him as if he were a child, but in a kind of curiosity and amazement, let's her go on. It's in such little ways that we're given to glimpse Henk's unspoken feelings for Anna.

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lionking-4

The developement of the relation between Anna and Henk is unusual, that's also the reason why the movie is interesting and -in a special way- exciting. Especially the non-dialogues between them, with different reasons for each person. Henk is introvert and doesn't speak Polish, Anna simply doesn't speak Dutch. But from the beginning of the movie I sensed some kind of love and care from Henk to Anna, and vice-versa. It's touchy to see their 'love & tenderness' growing. Very 'romantic', for those who want to see it!

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fkarsten

Pleasant to watch. Subtle humor and a convincing love story. If I were to fall in love I'd like it to be in this manner.

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