Krzysztof Zanussi:
Timeless Images and Questions in
"A Year of the Quiet Sun"
 
      
 
 






 

 

 
 
                                                                   Original movie poster
 
 
What Turns a Man into a Human Being?
 

Since we at cinemaseekers.com had the privilege of a personal interview with the great Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, let me start with a few personal observations. It rarely happens that upon meeting an artist, whom one has admired for a long time, one is not in some way disappointed. Yet our meeting with Zanussi was just such a rare case. As anyone who watches our interview with him can see, this man truly "lives" the questions he poses in his films: what is the nature of fate, of redemption, of sin? These are not merely abstract, intellectual topics for him, but rather profound concerns of his soul. It is no wonder that students all over the world feel attracted and inspired by his noble strivings in the very midst of today's general slide towards apathy and irresponsibility.

There are many films, which stand out as exceptional in Zanussi's output: "The Structure of Crystals", "Face to Face", "Family Life", "Illumination". However, a particularly special place is occupied by "A Year of the Quiet Sun". It represents one of those rare moments in cinema, when all the elements come together to form a magical, yet totally natural work of art. One can, of course, analyze the perfection of the screenplay and the subtleties of acting, but ultimately it is the indefinable elements that turn this film into a transcendental experience, when viewed as a whole. From the very first (somewhat awkward) encounter between the two main characters, we sense that they have a special connection, which draws them together with irresistible force. He is an American stationed in Poland at the end of WWII, and she has just returned to her native, war-ravaged country after the Nazi occupation. Speaking as they do two different languages, they can barely say two words to each other. Yet the attraction is unmistakable. This, however, is not the "animal magnetism" of sexual attraction so common and so misguidedly praised today, but a deep sensing of a spiritual connection between two human souls.
 
And it is the woman's soul in particular, Emilia's (beautifully portrayed by Maja Komorowska), which shines here in all its natural beauty! It is worth noting, in passing, the differences between Emilia's appearance and that of a typical Hollywood image of womanhood. What a striking contrast! One comes from the soul, has nothing to do with physical features themselves, but beautifies them from within with genuine feminine grace. The other (the Hollywood type) is a beauty-substitute: it is all about surface glamour, about the arousal of instincts, and it substitutes feminine vanity for feminine charm. Not coincidentally does the American man in the film (Scott Wilson) chooses the more natural type of feminine beauty (represented by Maja Komorowska) over the artificial American type.
 
The film's greatest achievement is that it manages to convey, despite (or even through) the essentially wordless communication of the characters, a sense that these two people "belong" together and that this "belonging" has already been predestined before they meet, before the film even begins. They themselves "know" it, and this sense of "knowing" empowers them to confront the harsh political system of Poland, which acknowledges no reality beyond what is visible to the earthly eyes (the reality of  a chair and a table, as Ingmar Bergman once put it). The inner world of a human being, his spiritual intuition, his ability to distinguish right from wrong, purity from impurity, true love from mere instinct, and his sensing of the invisible threads of Fate which connect people - all of these things are ridiculed and laughed at by the so-called "realists". These "realists", however, can be found in any political system, in any part of the world, in any profession and on any level of education. In truth, they are the people, who have cut themselves off precisely from the very reality of life, since they forcibly limit their perception of reality to the minutest part of the Universe - that part, which is visible only to our very limited earthly senses.

"... with the intellect as ruler it inevitably followed that, in accordance with its very nature, they [human beings] also chained themselves firmly to time and space, thereby losing the ability to grasp or experience anything above time and space, such as everything spiritual and ethereal.

"This was the complete severance from the real Paradise and from the Ethereal World, which they brought upon themselves; for it was now inevitable that with the horizon of their ability to comprehend firmly bound to earthly matters through the intellect, and thus narrowly limited, they could no longer 'understand' all that is ethereal, which does not know the earthly concept either of time or of space.

"Thus the experiences and visions of the intuitively-perceptive men, as well as the misunderstood traditions, became 'fairy tales' to the intellectual men. The ever-increasing number of materialists, that is, those who are only able to acknowledge coarse matter bound to earthly time and space, finally ridiculed the idealists to whom, through their much deeper and more expansive inner life, the way to the Ethereal World was not yet quite barred; they called them dreamers, if not fools or even impostors."

"Intellect is the highest of what is earthly, and is meant to be the steering element through life on earth, whereas the driving power is the intuitive perception, which originates in the Spiritual World. The basis of the intellect therefore is the physical body, but the basis of the intuitive perception is the spirit.

"As a product of the brain, which belongs to the gross material body, the intellect, like all that is earthly, is bound to the earthly conception of time and space. The intellect will never be able to work outside time and space, although it is actually more ethereal than the body, but nevertheless still too dense and heavy to rise above earthly conceptions of time and space. Hence it is completely earthbound.

"But the intuitive perception (not the feeling) is timeless and spaceless, and therefore comes from the Spiritual.

"Thus equipped, man could be closely connected with the finest ethereal, indeed even be in touch with the spiritual itself, and yet live and work in the midst of all that is earthly, gross material. Only man is endowed in this way. He alone, as the only bridge between the Luminous Heights and the gross material earthly, should and could provide the healthy, fresh connection! Only through him in his special nature could the pure Life from the Source of Light pulsate downwards into the deepest gross material, and from there upwards again in the most glorious, harmonious reciprocal action! He stands a link between the two worlds, so that through him these are welded into one world.

"However, he did not fulfil this task. He separated these two worlds instead of keeping them firmly united. And that was the Fall of Man!"

"This serious failure on the part of man could come about because he did not use the intellect, which originates only in gross matter, solely as an instrument, but completely subjected himself to it, making it ruler over all. He thus made himself the slave of his instrument and became merely intellectual man, who is in the habit of proudly calling himself a materialist!"

"By subjecting himself entirely to the intellect, man chained himself to all that is gross material. Just as the intellect cannot grasp anything beyond the earthly conception of time and space, obviously the man who has completely subjected himself to it cannot do so either. His horizon, that is his ability to comprehend, became narrow together with the limited ability of the intellect.

"The connection with the Ethereal was thus severed, a wall was erected which became dense and ever denser. Since the Source of Life, the Primordial Light, God, is far above time and space and still stands far above the Ethereal, naturally every contact must be cut off through the binding of the intellect. For this reason it is quite impossible for the materialist to recognise God. The eating from the tree of knowledge was nothing more than the cultivation of the intellect. The resulting separation from the Ethereal was also the closing of Paradise as a natural consequence. Mankind locked themselves out by inclining wholly towards the gross material through the intellect, thus degrading themselves, and voluntarily or of their own choice placing themselves in bondage." ("IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE" by Abd-ru-shin, chapter "Man in Creation").

The totalitarian system, which is so vividly portrayed in "A Year of the Quiet Sun", actively and aggressively promotes the basest and coarsest aspects of life, acknowledging the material reality as the only reality and denying man's higher spiritual nature. This attitude is actually not confined to any particular political system, but it does tend to manifest in the most brutal forms under the socialist system. And this is another reason why "A Year of  the Quiet Sun" is so valuable: it allows us to observe what this type of brutality does to people - both to the perpetrators and to the victims. When Emilia's flat is ransacked by the thugs (who are, perhaps, connected with the police), who do not even stop at beating her elderly and sick mother, it affects one so deeply that one can't stop wondering: are these people even human? What happened to make them lose their humanity to such an extent? Have they always been like this? And do we have anything in common with them? One usually goes round and round in these circles of questions, not finding a way out, as in a labyrinth...
 
We can begin, however, to comprehend this mystery, when we come across the following explanation:   

"The expression: 'We are all God's children' is wrong in the sense that man has given to it. Not every man is a child of God, only he who has developed into one!

"Man is sent down into Creation as a spirit-germ. This germ contains everything it needs to enable it to develop into a child of God, conscious of its personality. The condition is, however, that he unfolds and cultivates the corresponding abilities and does not allow them to perish.

"Great and mighty is the process and yet quite natural in its every stage. Nothing goes outside logical development, for there is logic in all Divine activity, because this is perfect, and what is perfect cannot be wanting in logic.

"Each of these spirit-germs carries the same abilities within itself, as they are all of the same spirit. Each of these abilities contains a promise which will be unconditionally fulfilled as soon as the ability has been developed. But only then! That is what each germ has in prospect when it is sown..." (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Man and His Free Will" - listen to the entire chapter in MP3 audio, 60 min.)

"... it is this spirit which alone turns man into a human being - that man can only become a human being through the spirit!

"This again proves that all those creatures on earth today who keep their spirit imprisoned cannot be regarded by the Light as human beings either!
"The animal has nothing of the spirit, therefore it can never become a human being. And that man who buries his spirit and does not let it work, which is just what makes him a human being, is in reality no human being!
"At this point we arrive at a fact which has so far been observed too little: I say that it is the spirit which stamps a man as a human being, which makes him one. The expression 'to make a human being' contains the hint that only through its activity does the spirit form the creature into a human being!
"Therefore to carry the spirit within does not suffice to be a human being, for a creature does not become a human being unless it allows the spirit as such to work within!..
"...the spirit is the real human being, which must develop in various cloaks from the germ to completion, because it always carries the urge to do so within itself...

"Thus let us confidently assert that the spirit is the actual human being, all else being only the cloaks. By wearing them the spirit becomes strong, and the consequent compulsion to bestir itself ever more increases its glowing.

"The glow into which the spirit is thus transposed does not die down when the cloaks are laid aside, but raises the spirit and leads it upwards into the Spiritual Realm.

"Just through being forced to bestir itself under the weight of its cloaks the spirit finally grows so strong that it can bear the stronger pressure in the Spiritual Realm and remain conscious, something it was unable to do as a spirit-germ.

"Such is the course of its development which took place for the sake of the spirit. The cloaks themselves are to be considered nothing but the means towards the end.

"Therefore nothing changes when man on earth lays aside his physical body. He is still the same human being, only without the physical cloak, with which there also remains the so-called astral covering necessary for forming the gross material earthly body, and which originates from medium gross matter.

"As soon as the heavy earthly body together with the astral body has fallen away the spirit remains clad in the more delicate cloaks only. In this condition the spirit is called 'the soul' in contradistinction to the earthman of flesh and blood!

"In his further ascent the human being also gradually lays aside all the other cloaks, until finally he only keeps the spirit body with a spiritual cloak, and in this way enters the Spiritual Realm as a spirit without any cloaks of other species.

"This is a natural happening because then no alien cloak can keep him back any longer, and consequently he must in the natural course of things be uplifted through the species of his own nature.

"Therefore this is the difference which very often causes you difficulty in your desire to understand, because you had no clarity and thus the conception of it remained vague.

"In reality only the spirit comes into question with a human being. All the other designations depend purely on the cloaks he wears.

"The spirit is everything, it is the essence, thus the human being. If together with the other cloaks he also wears the earthly cloak he is called earthman; when he lays aside his earthly cloak he is considered by earthman as soul; when he also lays aside these delicate cloaks he remains spirit alone, which he always has been in his species.

"Thus the various designations are merely adjusted to the species of the cloaks, which could themselves be nothing without the spirit, which glows through them." (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Soul".)

The cloak, in which we find ourselves here on earth today, is particularly difficult for the spirit to awaken in. This is due not so much to the fact that it is the densest (and, therefore, the heaviest) of all the cloaks we have to wear in Creation, but it is mostly due to the fact that through our own neglect in spiritual matters over thousands of years, the brain of this particular cloak has developed in an abnormal manner. 

"Through being continually exerted, the frontal brain which produces the intellect became disproportionately enlarged. It was therefore quite natural that this change in structure expressed itself in the procreation of the physical body, and that at birth children entered the world with an increasingly developed and stronger frontal brain.

This contained, and still today contains, a predisposition or tendency towards an intellectual power dominating all else, which harbours the danger that the bearer of such a brain, on awakening it fully, not only chains himself to space and time, but also to everything that is earthly and gross material. He then becomes incapable of grasping anything that is ethereal or primordial, and in addition entangles himself in all sorts of evil, which is inevitable where the intellect dominates.

It is the coming into the world with this voluntarily over-cultivated frontal brain, containing the danger of a mere intellectual domination with its inevitable evil manifestations, which is the hereditary sin!

It is the physical inheritance of this part, called on account of its excessive artificial cultivation the 'great' brain (cerebrum), which exposes man from birth to the danger of too easily entangling himself in evil. At any rate the narrow-mindedness which results from enchainment to coarse matter makes it more difficult to recognise God.

This, however, does not free him from responsibility, which he retains, for he inherits only the danger, not the sin itself. He is in no wise compelled to allow his intellect to rule unconditionally and thus submit himself to it. On the contrary, he can wield the great power of his intellect like a sharp sword to clear his path in the daily bustle of life, as directed by his intuitive perception, which is also called the Inner Voice."  (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Hereditary Sin".)

"Man, however, voluntarily abandoned the course prescribed for him through the constitution of his body. He stubbornly interfered in the normal working of 'the chain' of his instruments by making the intellect his idol. Thus he concentrated his whole energy upon the training of the intellect in an entirely one-sided manner! As a result the frontal brain, having now become the producer, was forced to exert itself out of all proportion to what was required of the other co-operating instruments.

This naturally incurred a heavy penalty! The uniform and harmonious co-operation of all the individual links was upset and hindered, and with it every right development. The excessive strain to which the frontal brain alone was subjected for thousands of years forced its development far beyond everything else.

This consequently curtailed the activity of all the neglected parts which, because of their lack of use, were bound to remain weak. Foremost among these is the cerebellum, which is the instrument of the spirit. Thus it follows that the activity of the human spirit proper was not only severely obstructed, but it is often completely cut off and remains excluded! The possibility of proper intercourse with the frontal brain [cerebrum] over the bridge of the small brain [cerebellum] is buried, while a direct connection between the human spirit and the frontal brain is utterly impossible owing to the latter's nature. The frontal brain is absolutely dependent on the full activity of the cerebellum, to which it stands next in succession according to God's Will, in order properly to fulfil the task assigned to it.

The specific quality of the cerebellum is needed in order to receive the vibrations of the spirit. It is impossible to bypass it, for the work of the frontal brain is to prepare their transition to the World of Fine Gross Matter, and therefore it is of a quite different and much coarser nature.

In the one-sided cultivation of the frontal brain lies the hereditary sin of earth-man against his God or, more precisely, against the Divine Laws, which manifest through the right apportionment of the bodily instruments, as in the entire Creation!

The observance of the correct apportionment would have automatically indicated the straight and right road of ascent to the human spirit. As it was, however, man in his ambitious conceit interfered with this machinery of healthy activity, singled out one part and cultivated it specially while disregarding all the others! This was bound to bring disproportion and stagnation in its train. If the course of natural events is hampered in such a way disease and failure must ensue, ending finally in wild confusion and collapse.

Here it is not only a question of the body but in the first place of the spirit! Through this interference - the unequal cultivation of the two brains - the cerebellum was suppressed through neglect in the course of thousands of years, and thereby the spirit was hampered in its activity. This became the hereditary sin, because the one-sided over-cultivation of the frontal brain is in the course of time passed on to each child through physical inheritance. Thus from the outset it becomes immensely difficult for the child's spirit to awaken and grow more powerful, because the bridge necessary for this purpose, the cerebellum, is no longer so easy to cross and is even very often completely cut off!

"Man has not the faintest idea what irony and strong censure lie in the expressions 'large brain' and 'small brain' which he created! No indictment regarding his transgression against Divine ordinance could be set forth in a more devastating manner! This precisely indicates the gravest of his earthly sins, for in his wanton obstinacy he so mutilated this fine instrument of his physical body, which is meant to help him on earth, that not only is it unable to serve him any longer in the way the Creator ordained, but it must even lead him to the depths of destruction! In this man has failed to a far greater extent than the drunkards or those who destroy their bodies by becoming slaves to their passions!

"In addition they now have the presumption to expect that God should make Himself manifest to them in a manner they can understand in their wantonly distorted physical bodies! After committing such a sin they would also make this demand!

"How easily and joyfully man could have ascended the steps to Luminous Heights in the natural course of development if he had not so wantonly interfered with the Work of God!

"The man of the future will have normal brains which will work uniformly and thus support each other harmoniously. The cerebellum, called the small brain because it is stunted in its growth, will now grow in strength as it attains to its proper field of activity until it is in the right proportion to the frontal brain. Then there will be harmony again, and all that is petrified and unhealthy must disappear!" ("IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE" by Abd-ru-shin, chapter "Intuitive Perception").