Gates To Paradise

Director Wajda, who lost his cavalry-officer father and who himself experienced the Polish resistance during WW II, was obsessed by the apparent futility of acts of heroism in wartime situations. This picture, based on the Children's Crusade of the 13th century, expresses that view in the extreme, stressing the hidden motives which often lie behind acts of presumed courage. The Children's Crusade was an early peace march, one in which thousands of youngsters, armed only with their moral convictions, attempted to halt the long-lasting carnage of the battles between Moslems and Christians for possession of the holy land. Some 50,000 of the child marchers were lost, m...