Tomasz Wolski’s 1970 is a documentary made up of archival footage, recorded phone calls, and stop-motion animation that chronicles the 1970 Polish protests. The demonstrations began when the prices of food and other everyday items increased dramatically in December that year. The events lates for five days, at which point they were violently shut down, resulting in at least 44 deaths and more than a thousand wounded.

In a surprising approach, 1970 tells the story almost entirely from the perspective of the oppressor. Made up mostly of recorded phone calls from government officials, we get to listen in as they panic to protect the most trivial of household goods and order the inhumane actions that would result in so many casualties. It’s a perspective that only highlights the banality of evil at play here, especially when hearing the triviality with which some of the drastic measures are discussed.

These actions discussed during these phone calls are illustrated with puppetry and simple stop-motion animation. In most shots it is only the camera that moves, with the very occasional and atrategic animation thrown in. The focus here lies on creating a brooding atmosphere. Cigarette smoke fills the rooms that are enveloped in darkness with few harsh light sources to create images with high levels of contrast. With a grainy filter to top it all off. It all feels a little noirish.

On one hand, it is impressive how director Tomasz Wolski was able to create such a clear narrative with little more than phone calls to hand. On the other hand, it feels like more documentation is needed. At first, the imagery is very powerful and striking, but it becomes a little monotonous after a while. The balance between animation and archive footage if roughly 80-20 in favour of the former. Considering the relatively short runtime of just 71 minutes, it means audiences get to see remarkably little archive footage of the real events. That’s a pity.

The animation lacks the emotion of real images. You feel disdain for the oppressors and their actions at play here, but you don’t ever gain more than a basic level of empathy for the protestors. You don’t know these people, in fact you barely see these people. The phone calls are strong, however insufficient to sustain an entire narrative. An extra touch of ingenuity is missing.

1970 is out on streaming platform TrueStory.film on Friday, January 3rd.