Matriculation

“A lesson in camouflage, conformity and doublethink,” is how the Polish publicist Tadeusz Sobolewski described this short documentary by Marcel Lozinski. He couldn’t have put it more tellingly. It shows the effects of an all-but bankrupt ideology force-fed to the Polish populace. Filmed in 1978, the main protagonists are Polish high school students who must not only abide by the Communist party’s mind-numbing rules and regulations, but also reproduce them. For their final exams in history and social studies, they must undergo rigorous interrogation about the qualities of an ideal party member, the structure of non-socialist systems and the impossibility of direct democracy. The examiners, who themselves betray not a trace of ideological passion, occasionally ask for clarification of a particular detail from the mishmash of hollow phrases and clichés. The tone is monotonous and oozes insincerity, but everyone joins in the theatrical display. Once back in the corridors and free from their interrogators, the students poke fun at their study material and are most preoccupied with whether they have passed or not. As Sobolewski remarks, in the camera fulfills “the role of a lie detector,” and almost all the students pass that test with flying colors.