Abstract

This paper discusses the film project Kashubia, conceived by Edmund Byczyński in 1948 in the Educational Film Studio in Łódź. The main sources of the analysis are three reviews: first – the external expert opinion, commissioned by the Studio; second – the internal discussion of the film by the programming committee; finally – the statement of the censorship office. The analysis reveals the political control mechanisms established in Stalinist Poland for non-fiction film, as it was recommended to shape the discourse of Kashubia in a socialist realist manner. The filmmakers were required to depict the development of the region as a class struggle between the outdated capitalist exploitation on the one hand and the modern communist rationality on the other hand.