Close, Ever Closer

Endurance and Violence. Year 1884 (1x3)

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Years pass. Bismarck’s Kulturkampf policies weigh ever more heavily on the Silesian Poles. Unexpectedly, Franciszek Pasternik’s son Jan returns home — he had gone missing years earlier during the Franco‑Prussian War. Now he is a French citizen. Yet his longing for his native land has led him to visit his family. The joy of his return, however, does not last long. It is brutally interrupted by the Prussian authorities, who confiscate old Pasternik’s forge. For the aged blacksmith this is too much to bear. Deeply shaken, he suffers a stroke, resulting in almost complete paralysis.