Cross of Valor

Summary: Three unrelated stories. The film was a voice in the national discussion about the experience of World War II. The first story - "Medal of Valor" is the story of a Catholic Polish villager soldier who was drafted to the army in 1939 and towards the end of the war, along with the Red Army arrived to liberate Poland from the Germans. He receives the highest military decoration of Poland after conducting a daring military operation. Following this he won a four-day vacation with his family, and arrives to find his native village completely destroyed and all the residents except for one, killed. The soldier returns to his unit, shocked, indifferent and silent. He does not volunteer for any further action. The second story - "The dog". A young soldier in an army post near Auschwitz finds a purebred Wolfhound and adopts it. His two comrades are afraid of the dog. The dog scares particularly freed prisoners in their stripes uniforms. The soldier leaves for his duty rounds and the two friends decide to kill the dog. They are debating, encouraging themselves, to shoot it but eventually try to kill the dog by stoning it and then only after the dog stops staring at them in the eye and starts to crawl and whine. The third story - "The widow". To a liberated town in western Poland seized and settled by the Polish army veterans and managed jointly by the party secretary and a pastor, comes the widow of the revered commander of the unit settles there. They make her a leader, a figure above the rest, offer her any office or honor she would like, furnish and equip a home for her and appoint a servant (who spies on her for the two authorities - the priest and the party secretary). The town children spy voluntarily. The young widow walks away from the honor and status when she falls in love with a young and handsome "animal technician" who comes from Warsaw. She leaves it all and follows him, leaving the Communist-Catholic town without a queen.