"The Promised Land” by Wladyslaw Reymont is a must-read not only for those who love the industrial history of 19th century Lodz. In the 1970s it was phenomenally adapted by one of Poland's most famous directors, Andrzej Wajda, who claimed that it was one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult film he had ever made, because the main character was the city and its dynamic, predatory transformation.
"The Promised Land” was an Oscar-nominated film, and American audiences couldn't help but wonder where a country they considered poor and backward could find the resources for such realistic and grandly made film sets. Meanwhile, the truth was prosaic. The factory buildings were perfectly preserved and the Polish masters of cinematography: Witold Sobocinski, Edward Klosinski and Waclaw Dybowski knew exactly how to show their austere beauty.
Today we can still admire the sad and beautiful story of a metropolis where almost everyone is blindly chasing money and slowly losing their moral values and convictions. Daniel Olbrychski, who played one of the main roles, also commented on the film: "At the time, Ingmar Bergman named Andrzej Wajda's masterpiece as one of the ten most important films in the world".