Nights and Days

Nights and Days
Directed by	Jerzy Antczak
Written by	Jerzy Antczak Maria Dąbrowska
Starring	Jadwiga Barańska Jerzy Bińczycki Beata Tyszkiewicz Andrzej Seweryn Jerzy Kamas Elżbieta Starostecka
Cinematography	Stanisław Loth
Music by	Waldemar Kazanecki
Distributed by	Studio Filmowe Kadr
Release date	23 September 1975 (1975-09-23)
Running time	632 minutes (TV version)
Country	Poland
Language	Polish

Nights and Days (Polish: Noce i dnie) is a 1975 Polish film directed by Jerzy Antczak. This epic family drama was based on Maria Dąbrowska's novel Noce i dnie, and was described by The Washington Post as "Poland's Gone With the Wind". Set in Kalisz and the Kalisz Region in the second half of the 19th century after the failure of the January Uprising in 1863, the film presents a unique portrait of an oppressed society, life in exile, and the confiscation of private property as told through the loves and struggles of the Niechcic family. This sweeping historical epic was the highest-grossing film in Poland's history upon its release and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1977.^[1] The film score was composed by Waldemar Kazanecki, which includes a Viennese waltz that is frequently played at Polish weddings as the first dance of bride and groom.

Amid the turbulence of World War I, elderly Barbara Niechcic recalls her dramatic life with husband Bogumił over a half-century of Polish history, starting with the failed January Uprising in 1863. Barbara, running away from burning city of Kalisz is reminiscing her unfulfilled love, her marriage to a man she does not initially love, death of her first child, birth of three others, confiscation of her family property, abandoning her husband, his illness, death and other numerous family struggles.