| Pearl in the Crown | |
| Director: | Kazimierz Kutz |
| Producer: | Zespół Filmowy Wektor |
| Starring: | Łucja Kowolik Marian Opania Olgierd Łukaszewicz Jan Englert Franciszek Pieczka |
| Music: | Wojciech Kilar |
| Screenplay: | Bolesław Kamykowski |
| Cinematography: | Stanislaw Loth |
| Editing: | Irena Chorynska |
| Runtime: | 111 minutes |
| Country: | Poland |
| Language: | Polish |
Pearl in the Crown (Polish: Perła w koronie) is a 1972 Polish drama film directed by Kazimierz Kutz. It was entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.[1] The film was also selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 45th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[2]
The film takes place in August 1934 in the Polish part of Upper Silesia. The film tells the story of a strike in the fictional mine "Zygmunt". Jaś, a young miner who works in the mine, has a wife and two young sons. Jaś comes home from his shift. The next day he learns that the unprofitable mine is to be closed by flooding with water. A strike breaks out. Families help the strikers, despite the fact that the mine is surrounded by a police cordon. Petitions to the Government go unanswered, the management persists, so the miners announce a hunger strike. The police retaliate by violently breaking up the demonstration. The determined miners decide to continue the strike underground despite the imminent threat of the mine being flooded. Finally though, the management signs a settlement, and the miners come to the surface and go back to their families.