The TVP series begins with the sale of a girl to a brothel. Viewer comments? “Promises to be interesting

The series “Hunting Moths” officially debuted on Sunday, March 19, 2023. It was based on the book “Pogrom 1905” by Wacław Holewiński, so it’s no wonder that it was originally supposed to be titled “Pogrom 1905. Love and Disgrace”. The plot is to show the little-known reality of life of Poles under Russian partition, and in particular to focus on women who fight for freedom. The action begins in 1905, when independence sentiments are gaining strength. In order to avoid an uprising, the head of the tsarist Okhrana wants to use a stratagem and divert public attention – to this end, he provokes riots in the city.

What do viewers think after the broadcast of the first episode of “Hunting for moths”?

The comments under the trailer on the TVP profile sound overwhelmingly the same: It promises to be interesting. Similar comments were made even before the premiere of the series in early March. This time, if someone shows more creative inventiveness, praise is collected, for example, by photos and costumes, or possibly by the cast. There are also occasional comments that the episodes are too short.

One of the people, who obviously points out that the series promises to be interesting, also spotted a certain detail. In one of the scenes, the stage design department used so much contemporary tableware that it is widely available: “It promises to be interesting, what’s more, on the table at the Russian officer and his wife, I noticed the same coffee tableware that I have at home and which I I use it every day. I won’t say it was nice.”

Although there are exceptions and some traces of discussion. The attention “Very addictive, intriguing. Costumes and hairstyles … every woman would like to be able to put on this wardrobe” there were also such answers: “Banialuki”, “I wouldn’t want such a wardrobe”, “My wife wouldn’t want it”.

Some point out that the production is too reminiscent of “The House Under Two Eagles”, as many of the cast members of that production appear. The plot is also associated with another series: “Similar to the series>”, “Honestly? He hides at the House under two eagles. Already the first episode did not go crazy ” – viewers comment.

Only single comments seem to be critical: “I’m tired of violence and wars”, “The terrible reality. Women who cannot live with dignity. It’s not for me”, “It’s very depressing, only war-related series on TVP”, “Enough of politics Too much violence. The film does not inspire optimism”, “Of course I will watch, but I’m tired of Sunday movies showing atrocities, death, human tragedies. I know, I know it’s our story, it’s never been good.>,>,> etc. – maybe the creators would shoot some comedy, some series”, “This episode is just so-so”, “Wow doesn’t do it”. Statistically, however, there are fewer of them, because let’s remind – out of almost 500 entries, most of them ensure that the production ” promises to be interesting”.

“Moth Hunting”. Summary of the first episode

The director of the production is Michał Rogalski, who previously made such historical productions as: “The Guilty Century”, “War Girls”, “Hitler’s Aunt” and “Time of Honor”. The cast of the series included Sonia Mietielica, known from “The Guilty Century”, Monika Krzywkowska (“39 and a Half Weeks”), and Piotr Nerlewski (“War Girls”). The first episode focuses on outlining the decidedly complicated relationship between three women.

Sonia Mietlica plays the heroine who is sold by the pimp Czarny to the brothel of Franciszka Szlimakowska (Monika Krzywkowska). There, the girl gets a job and the nickname Yvette, but she has to look for accommodation elsewhere. He goes to another independence activist – Szczerba. He is a friend of her fiancé Józef, with whom she lost contact when she was arrested. It is not known what happened to him, Yvette decides to earn money to find the lover.

On the same day, a bomb planted by the PPS explodes near Szlimakowska’s brothel. At Szczerba’s house, Yvette meets Marcel (Piotr Nerlewski) – a courier who delivered an explosive charge and was injured in the explosion. Their relationship will turn out to be important later.

The second narrative axis of the episode is Nastazja Jurina (Daria Polunina), who looks at the same events from a different perspective. She is a Russian woman from St. Petersburg who came to Warsaw with her husband Jurin, who serves as an officer in the tsarist Okhrana. The marriage was arranged after a sex scandal, and Nastazja feels like a stranger both at home and in Warsaw itself. From the frustrated lack of promotion (the boss blames him for another bomb explosion in his district) and the offspring from her husband, she usually hides in the Orthodox church. Meanwhile, by chance, Jurina runs into Szlimakowska in the shop, which gives rise to their ambiguous acquaintance.

Another important plot revolves around the owner of an exclusive brothel. Szlimakowska really wants to sell her shrine and move to Biarritz. The matter is so complicated that it formally belongs to her husband, who abandoned her years ago and disappeared. Despite the complicated legal status of the property, there is a willing buyer – however, before any transaction takes place, Wiktor Grun puts in his two cents. (Przemyslaw Stipp). He is supposedly an official, but secretly deals with racketeering together with Czarny (Marcin Sztabiński).

And how does all this relate to the stratagem and moral riots announced earlier? Fortunately, the publisher of the book “Pogrom 1905” mentioned this issue earlier. “At the end of May 1905, mysterious and still unexplained events took place in Warsaw: Jews, and a moment later also Poles, lynched prostitutes and pimps, murdering women of loose morals and their>, vandalizing and burning brothels. These events lasted only a few days, and the newspapers of the time described them as ‘summary courts’, seeing them as an attempt to morally heal the ‘corrupted’ atmosphere of the city” – explains Holewiński in the introduction to the novel.

The author of the book, Wacław Holewiński, has already seen the TVP series. What he saw, he commented on social media as follows:

I saw the raw version a few months ago. Now it’s a completely different, much better (but that’s what I expected) movie. It is more than good, without a doubt, it evokes emotions. Could there be anything more important to a movie? Warsaw 1905, a mixture of languages: Polish, Russian, Yiddish. An unknown episode from the history of Warsaw. I can say with full responsibility: there has never been such a film in Polish cinema before.