TV series 'Dom' was meant to praise the Party. How its makers outwitted the censors

One of the best-known Polish TV series, 'Dom' ('The House'), was made to order for the communist authorities. According to WP Film, Party officials wanted a story that – under the original title '22 July' – would glorify the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and the rebuilding of the capital under its leadership. TVP began broadcasting it on 9 November 1980.

Propaganda that went wrong

The script was commissioned from Jerzy Janicki (author of 'Polskie drogi') and Andrzej Mularczyk (the 'Sami swoi' trilogy). The authorities hoped the series would improve the Party's image, which was very poor in the late 1970s. The writers instead showed that the city destroyed by the Germans in 1944 was rebuilt by ordinary people. Director Jan Łomnicki used the script's ambiguity, irony and seemingly innocent dialogue to smuggle in a picture of reality far from the propaganda version.

The fight with the censors

The censors did not give way without a fight. At the approval screening of the first episode, one military officer accused the makers of showing the main character deserting the People's Polish Army (LWP). A sharp joke about the Party and the masses was removed from a ZMP meeting scene and replaced with a milder one. A scene in which Talar tries to testify at the trial of his former Home Army commander was also cut. The character played by Bożena Dykiel, meanwhile, angered former women soldiers of the LWP.

According to WP Film, the approval screening of the whole series, then seven episodes long, took place in September 1980. It was helped by the political thaw after August 1980 and the birth of Solidarity.

The second series and broadcast problems

After the success, the crew began filming a second series, but the introduction of martial law interrupted it. TVP announced a premiere for 27 March 1983, but it never happened. Decision-makers demanded cuts to scenes inconvenient to them, including the thread about the workers' protest of June 1956, the release of Home Army soldiers from prison and Jasiński being wheeled out of the FSO factory in a wheelbarrow. When the makers refused, the broadcast was blocked. The last episode of the second series was not filmed until 1987.

Andrzej Mularczyk recalled that filming of the first episode began in 1979 and the last was completed in 1999. The reasons were martial law, demands for cuts, and, after the transition, a lack of money and a new team unwilling to continue old projects.

Will there be a sequel?

A few months ago the media reported that Tomasz Borkowy, who played Andrzej Talar, is working on a script for new episodes. The actor said it tells of the turning points in the country's history through the stories of people living in the changing conditions of the end of communist Poland and the start of democracy. WP Film notes that the road to production may still be long.