The Bloody Fate (1912)

Overview

The village clerk, Zołzikiewicz, sets his sights on Rzepowa, a beautiful but unattainable woman. He arranges for her drunken husband, unaware of what he is doing, to sign a declaration agreeing to serve in the army in place of the village headman’s son. Left alone with her child, Rzepowa faces poverty and the threat of Zołzikiewicz’s advances. Desperate for understanding and help, she turns to the court, the local authorities, the priest, the manor, and the district authorities. Finding help nowhere, she eventually gives herself to Zołzikiewicz, who has promised to destroy Rzepa’s signed declaration in return. He breaks his promise, however. Desperate and enraged, Rzepa kills his wife and sets fire to the manor house. The film has not survived.