The 53rd annual International Film Festival will conclude with the 1960 Polish film “The Knights of the Teutonic Order” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, in Plaster Hall’s Cornell Auditorium.
Director Aleksander Ford created a spectacular super-production of the medieval struggle at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and the victory of the Poles and Lithuanians over the German warrior-monks of the Teutonic Order, bearers of aggressive Germanization.
Due to the support by the management of Polish cinematography and size of the enterprise it rivaled similar productions from the United States and Western Europe at the time. Fifteen thousand extras were employed to bring the battle scenes to life.
The film, which was a success in its genre, received an enthusiastic audience all over Eastern Europe. It remains one of the most attended films in Polish history.
Presented by the Missouri Southern Film Society and the Institute of International Studies, admission is free and open to the public.