Review of A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984) by Lee M — 12 Mar 2016

Moody low budget tragic romance tales that seeps into you very powerfully. It is postwar Poland. An american soldier with PTSD due to being tortured while a P.O.W under the Nazis is searching for a woman with a big heart.

Emilia seems ordinary. She is not good looking, has aged rapidly because of the war so that she seems middle-aged despite being a young woman, lives in destitute poverty, and is trying to take are of her sickly mom.

But none of this matters to Norman the soldier who instantly falls for her even though he doesn't know a word of Polish and she doesn't know a word of English. They communicate through translators and Emilia is very reluctant a first to get involved with him.

To exacerbate matters a gang of desperate thugs break in and steal what little Emilia and her mom has. The Ultra conservative and corrupt Polish authorities put up obstacles against Emilia leaving Poland due to her being married even though it's obvious her soldier husband has perished in the war.

However, they can be paid off through bribes. It turns out Emilia's mom has a hidden stash of money but she is told the price has gone up so she can only buy the freedom of her daughter not herself.

Tragically, she begins to will her own death. She needs medicine, Emilia gets it for her but she insists on taking her own meds. She gets rid of the meds without taking them and soon dies. However, Emilia is under the mistaken assumption her mother has bribed the authorities for 2 exit visas, when in fact it is only for one.

So, she offers one of them to her neighbor. A woman who has been ostracized for having been a whore in the Nazi death camp to SS officers. But that was the only way she could have survived the death camp.

She yearns to start a new life for herself in America or in western Europe where no one knows her. In addition she has been a good friend to Emilia and has even nursed Emilia's mom at times. So the day comes when Norman expects Emilia in West Berlin, but instead of Emilia , the former prostitute Stella arrives, proving that Emilia had a huge heart after all.

She sacrifices herself for her friend. Norman never sees her again. His dream was to take her to his farm in Wyoming. The film has a mystical powerful ending.