SHIVERS (Polish: Dreszcze) is a 1981 Polish psychological drama directed by Wojciech Marczewski.

Set in 1955, during the height of Stalinist terror and pervasive indoctrination, the film follows the story of Tomek, a twelve-year-old boy raised in a household that upholds patriotic and Catholic values. One day, his father is arrested by the secret police (UB), and Tomek is sent to a special youth education center — a repressive boarding school that serves as a disguised instrument of state propaganda. Within this tightly controlled institution, Tomek is subjected to intense ideological conditioning and peer pressure. Gradually, he transforms into a model student, a devoted Young Pioneer, and a zealous follower of communist ideology.

Shivers offers a powerful depiction of the mechanisms of brainwashing and psychological oppression under a totalitarian regime. It shows how ideology can infiltrate even the most intimate aspects of a person’s consciousness — and how frighteningly easy it is to manipulate and break a young mind.

Cast: Tomasz Hudziec, Henryk Bista, Zdzisław Wardejn, Teresa Marczewska, Piotr Fronczewski

Filming locations: Wrocław (school interiors, monastery settings, residential courtyards), Krzeszów (Cistercian Abbey), Sobótka, the areas around Świdnica and the Owl Mountains (outdoor forest scenes)

Awards: Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival (1981), Grand Prix at the Gdynia Film Festival; widely recognized by critics as one of the most important works of Polish cinema in the 1980s.

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