Andrzej Bart

The Reverse

About the Author

Excerpt

"The Reverse: A Film Novella" is the author’s literary version of his own script which was made into a feature film under the same title by director Borys Lankosz. The plot is deceptively simple. The action takes place mainly in the Warsaw of 1952-53, but there are also a few contemporary scenes. Sabina, who is almost thirty and works as a poetry editor at one of Warsaw’s major publishing houses, lives with her mother and grandmother in a cramped flat full of mementos of pre-war grandeur. In communist Poland Sabina’s family has been relegated to the margins of society. As representatives of “the former bourgeoisie,” they have been condemned to menial jobs, a life of poverty and other insults. Some of them – such as Sabina’s younger brother, a socialist-realist painter and utter conformist – have tried to adapt to the new environment, while others – such as Sabina’s mother – have let themselves be intimidated and browbeaten. Sabina’s recipe for surviving the worst post-war years has been the simplest: in order to preserve her dignity, she has done her best to be a decent person. However, it is not politics or any public issues that are central to the plot of "The Reverse". The protagonist’s main problem is an entirely personal matter, namely, her spinsterhood. New suitors are always knocking at her door, but the one she has chosen for herself turns out to be – in the book’s pivotal, superbly executed scene – an out-and-out villain. It is not even that he is a secret police agent who proposes to marry Sabina in return for informing on her boss, whom she worships and firmly believes to be the noblest man in the world. A despicable monster who pretends to love and preys on womanly devotion and sensitivity, the agent must die – with the whole-hearted approval of two other female characters and the blessing of Sabina’s brother. The murder, just as arguably everything else in "The Reverse", must be seen as a symbolic event. Bart’s aim is to present a story that is different – both in terms of poetics and on the ideological and moral plain – about the worst years in the history of communist Poland, an era marked by terror and crime. However, he does not mean to invalidate the martyrological aspect of the Stalinist era, but rather to ask what we as a community do with it today, how we use and transform it.

Dariusz Nowacki

Andrzej Bart (born 1951) is a novelist, scriptwriter and documentary film producer. Most recently he has published the novels Don Juan Rides Again and The Flypaper Factory.