Niedzielne igraszki (1983)

Made in 1983, shelved for four years. A chilling tale about kids playing in a bombed-out Warsaw courtyard on the day of Stalin's death, while their parents are away at the church or a memorial procession. A pudgy boy, disliked as a snob and a bully, appears decked out in a black suit covered by his father's medals. He is about to go to the trains station, but first he steals some of the pre-war medals from the porter's ragged son. This second group of decorations outrages the party members who come to pick him up, and leads to arrest of his parents. The terrible ironies and senselessness of the adult world pass over the heads of the kids, who go on playing games like "Uprising" and "Shoot the Jews". In another play kids torment a half-wit woman, then try to make the porter's son strangle the courtyard kitten. Maryska, a girl who always sticks to herselef is chased up and down the precarious scaffolding and finally buried in the sand box along with the dead kitten. The games go on...