The Boat Factory (2000)

Directed by: Lech Kowalski | 87 minutes | documentary | Starring: Lukaszz, Goska, Paula, Czarny, Wojtek, Anka, Gemba, Wladek, Ormo, Kaska, Ges, Marzena, Sowa, Mariosz, Marcin, Denver, Bisping, Majster, Monika, Pan Stefan, Resor, Kaska

Lukasz and Wojtek set up a boot factory without any start-up capital or family members who served as wheelbarrows. They make the boots together with Piotr. This is largely done by hand. They sell them to people on the street or to customers who stop by the factory. They then warn that the boots will stretch another half size and that they can also contact them for repairs. Before the arrival of this truly Polish product, everyone wore Romanian boots.

Lukasz is the businessman who is concerned with purchasing good leather or the right needles. He comes up with something to increase production, appeals to his friends and new employees about their work ethic and is good at organizing both business and private. Wojtek has been friends with Lukasz for many years. Through their common struggle to rise above poverty, they have developed a close bond. But Wojtek’s drug use is getting worse and worse, much to Lukasz’s chagrin.

When Wojtek has been kicked off by Lukasz, he resumes his work in the factory. Piotr marries his pregnant girlfriend and moves into a flat. This only works for a short time. He is concerned about Wojtek’s drug use, but in the meantime he is using more and more. He sabotages his drug habit by running away from the clinic. ‘The Boot Factory’ is a largely black and white filmed documentary about a group of friends who are involved with money, work, music, parties, women, housing and drugs. Actually not that different from many other groups of friends around the world. But what makes it so exciting to be an eyewitness to their daily worries is that because of their anarchic way of life you would expect them to live on benefits, for example, to blow up the system from within. Or that they would at most have a drug trade, of which they themselves are the largest buyers. What you see, however, are people who practice a craft with dedication. They party like animals and go crazy at a punk concert, but after that they just make boots again. And this with a seriousness and knowledge that is almost touching, especially because of the great contrast with their ferocious appearance and large intake of drugs and alcohol.

‘The Boot Factory’ is fascinating because of the combination of the unusual subject and the total openness with which the friends have been portrayed by Kowalski in their good and bad moments.