I Died to Live war movie

I Died to Live (1984, Poland)

Original / alternative title: Umarłem, aby żyć

Categories: resistance movies

I Died to Live

Director: Stanislaw Jedryka

Czas: 90 minut

Laguages: Polish

war movies infoAdam 'Frey' Barczynski
2024-04-07 / 1970-01-01

True story of Polish resistance member arrested and tortured by Gestapo in Warsaw. Since he knew the coding methods it was vital for the organization Germans would not gain any knowledge out of him. He was prepared to die, but the resistance came up with different solution.

In 1941 Polish resistance member Leopold Wojcik is caught by the Gestapo in one of the Warsaw cafes while he was delivering the encoded messages. Germans quickly realize they intercepted the cryptographer and put Wojcik in Pawiak, the infamous Gestapo prison, where he is tortured to reveal the encoding methods of the resistance. Wojcik is close to break down, but doesn’t want to place other resistance members in danger of being exposed. He receives secret message from the organization that they changed all the contacts within local network, so the information he would pass to Germans could not hurt anyone, but still he can reveal the encrypting methods. Tortured Wojcik breaks down and asks the resistance to smuggle poison into Pawiak prison, so he could kill himself. Meanwhile his mother, Maria, tries to seek the contacts in resistance to see if they could save her son, but since she is already under scrutiny from Germans the resistance members are trying to avoid her and convince her not to try to contact them any more. They planned to smuggle the poison to the prison, but one of the doctors came up with another plan...

Film based on a true story of Stanislaw Miedza-Tomaszewski, member of Polish resistance, who was arrested by Gestapo and placed in the infamous Pawiak prison, where tortures were present on daily basis. Tomaszewski takes part as himself in the first and last scene of the film explaining his story. Like most of the movies based on true stories this one also is worth to know, it shows the atmosphere of occupied Warsaw and the methods resistance used to pass the messages and try to rescue their members from one of the worst prisons in occupied Poland. The quality of the movie is another thing - in 1980s all Polish movies were made on terrible equipment, lacked proper sound and lighting, but the interesting story makes up for the quality of the material.

Our rating

6.4

Film value

5 / 10

Realism factor

4 / 5

Adventure factor

2 / 5

Historical accuracy

5 / 5

2024-04-07

I Died to Live videos

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I Died to Live