EIN JAHR DER RUHENDEN SONNE

In 1946 a train carrying displaced persons from eastern Poland reaches the so-called “recovered territories”. In what is a cattle car sit forty-year-old Emilia and her sick mother. Here, in these foreign lands, they try to build a new home and yet the region's German past seems to haunt the new apartment. Emilia finds hope in the form of American soldier Norman who arrives in the area in order to lead a war crimes investigation. He too is a stranger here. The two fall in love and want to make a fresh start in the US and yet Emilia cannot let go, neither of her mother nor her country. A YEAR OF THE QUIET SUN is the tale of an impossible love and of people who, though unable to speak a common language and both without a home, are in possession of a number of unanswered questions about the past. Toying with elements of psychological realism the film stands out with an atmospheric density thanks to the wonderful camerawork of Sławomir Idziak. In 1984 Krzysztof Zanussi was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for this film. KM