Cinders

Cinders is Janusz Glowacki’s modern “Cinderella” tale set in a Polish, state-run, all-girl’s reform school in 1980. The girls in the school, who are all criminally, sexually, and socially experienced beyond comprehension, are coerced into producing their own production of “Cinderella.” The state seizes this potential marketing opportunity and allows a film director to create a documentary film about the girls and their production in an attempt to “tug at the hearts of the westerners” and to show their own people at home the “successes” of their modern reformatory program. Corruption and manipulation run rampant as Mr. Glowacki emulates Poland’s political condition at the time. Modern day comparisons can be made to our current American administration and its manipulation of intelligence and public opinion, the greedy hunt for oil and power and a brand of martial law disguised as “The Patriot Act.” Mr. Glowacki shows us that, in one way or another, we’re all just dreaming of that day when we finally get to go to the ball in the evening gown and steal the heart of the Prince.