Kanal

Director: Andrzej Wajda
Year Released: 1957
Rating: 3.0

Polish Resistance fighters flee from the German onslaught during World War II and are forced to trek through Warsaw's sewers, though any chance of survival seems minimal. Claustrophobic and dank, it shows the effects unbearable tension and stress can have on the soldiers; being in the canals and in constant fear of their lives takes a toll on their psychological states and some of them break from the pressure. It's less effective as character study than it is a harrowing look at the (literal) cesspool that is war and a celebration of those who fought against the Nazi menace (even when their state was occupied).