Thursday, February 16, 2006

Surveying the spoils


Well the mission went better than I had expected. Snow fell for most of the day in large fat flakes - the kind that show up well on video. Despite the usual frustrating (late buses), painful (snow-stuffed shoes) and surreal (breaking through military funeral preparations in search of a loo) I was able to cover the birch war graves of the 'Zosta' battalion (the prime objective) plus some alternatives before returning to retake a shot from the Tartar cemetery. The deep snow seemed to keep the grumpy gatekeeper well clear of me - and fairly silent.

I moved on to the Powązki cemetery - plastered white it looked like a fantastical storage area for a lost civilisation's frozen kings, barons, angels and economists. After fifty minutes of searching I finally found Kieslowski's grave. Recently instructions for how to find it appeared on the internet but even with them it was hard to find (the cemetery's index only goes up to 1995 and Kieslowski died in 1996...). I have since updated the instructions on Wikipedia's Kieslowski entry and if for some reason they get deleted let me make it clear:

Kieslowski is buried in plot square 23 which can be found easily on the cemetery's map boards.

On the way home and as the dusk set in I took a long detour and was able to pick up (if I don't say so myself) some rather delicate suggestive shots of office workers trapped in their cells while the snow danced past outside - potentially very useful for the final part of the film.

Tomorrow I shall be off to Lodz for an exhibition - a rare break from routine. Naturally the very last of this winter's snow is predicted to fall at precisely that time. I shall just have to bite my lip and be grateful for what I've already been able to get. But if only to have one last chance...

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