Notes

* AngerBornOfWorry: PlayedForLaughs when Róża has a truly epic outburst on Tadeusz. [[spoiler: He was demining her field, while she was sewing his clothes back home. Suddenly a massive explosion shatters windows and Róża runs alarmed to the last position she saw Tadeusz, looking around for his body. Turns out he intentionally detonated a landmine he couldn't disarm, so she starts screaming at him, in German, apparently ''completely oblivious she slipped to another language'']]. And then she calls him for a dinner before it gets cold.
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Probably just an error, but the Soviet major is billed as a colonel during end titles, despite wearing very distinctive insignia.
* BlackComedy: Tadeusz and Władek need to [[spoiler: find a leg that got blown off from one of the looters to hide the body]] before any sort of authorities will show up.
* BrickJoke: Despite his best effort, the bicycle eventually ends up stolen from Tadeusz. Much later he meets again with the black market trader, who rides on that very bike. [[spoiler: After sharing a laugh over it, [[PetTheDog Tadeusz gets the bike back for free]]]].
* BrutalHonesty: Liliwa, the doctor, very bluntly informs Tadeusz [[spoiler: Róża will die and Jadwiga will get deported, trying to convince his friend to flee before Bureau of Security gets to him]]. It doesn't work, but Tadeusz also doesn't mind being chewed and is fully aware of that all while also being touched by Liliwa's concern.
* TheBrute: Vasyl, the Russian soldier[=/=]looter[=/=]settler, who is an useful "muscle" for local authorities for the purpose of terrorising locals.
* CassandraTruth: The dollars really have been simply found.
* ChekhovsArmoury: In almost literal form: Tadeusz finds a crashed German Kübelwagen. At first he only picks a small stash of dollars that helps him with various tasks, but then returns later to retrive a rifle, scope for it and a pistol, each important for separate events later on.
* ChekhovsLecture: Róża has one about Mazurian funeral traditions. [[spoiler: Tadeusz follows it later when preparing for her funeral. He also uses a hatchet to kill Vasyl, following Róża's guess what the axe is for in the tradition]].
-->'''Róża:''' To kill evil?
* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** The looter who got his leg blown off by a landmine.
** [[spoiler: The brutal, drag-out murder of Vasyl, who is eventually ''chopped into pieces'' by enraged Tadeusz]].
* DeadpanSnarker: Tadeusz has his moments, most importantly when drinking with Kazik
-->'''Tadeusz''': If I was a "class enemy", I would be blowing up bridges, not demining farmland.
* DeterminedWidow: Deconstructed - Róża might be tought as a nail, but that won't save her in any way.
* DirtyCoward: Władek, who never can muster just enough courage.
* TheDogBitesBack: Róża eventually takes her chance and [[spoiler: stabs Vasyl, saving Tadeusz in the process]].
* DramaticIrony:
** All the Masurians staying in their homes rather than escaping, trying to keep their steads and fatherland, going through all sort of humiliaition, presecutions and even random lynches and manhunts... [[spoiler: only to be deported anyway in the end]].
** The only gynecologist in the area is a Soviet major, trying to help in a situation caused by his own army.
* DrowningMySorrows: Again, Władek, who just can't cope with the whole post-war mess.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Kazik, the [[StateSec ubek]] in glasses sits in the back of the rover delivering the Soviet captain when the Masurians are begging local commisair for food.
* FamedInStory: After demining a field, Tadeusz gains notoriety as "the local sapper".
* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler: Tadeusz might probably stand a chance - or get at least some extra time - against UB investigation, if he never went for that beer, meeting Kazik in the bar]].
* ForcedToWatch:
** Tadeusz watches as his wife is raped and murdered and he not only is too weak from his wounds to do anything about it, but has to [[PlayingPossum pretend he's dead already]].
** [[spoiler: Jadwiga more than once has to watch or at least listen to her mother being raped and must always pretend she's not even there, hiding from the rapists on Róża's insistance]].
* ForegoneConclusion: The Mazurs will get eventually deported as Germans. Then again, considering what was going in Poland in the Stalinist period, that was a reward, not a punishment.
** On meta-level, it's Smarzowski's film. It just can't have a HappyEnding.
* ForeignLanguageTirade: Róża speaks Polish for the entire film. The only time she lapses to German happens when she [[spoiler: thinks Tadeusz died while demining her field and has an angry rant on him for almost giving her a heart attack out of worry]].
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Kazik is utterly incapable of feeling any sort of compassion, on just about any level. More, he apparently takes personal pleasure from tormenting everyone, especially Tadeusz. It all makes him a perfect [[StateSec UB officer]]. Eventually Tadeusz flat-out calls him out on being "human carrion".
* FreezeFrameBonus: Liliwa [[spoiler: also ends up in the torture dungeon. He doesn't make it]].
* FriendInTheBlackMarket: A helpful, cheerful guy that can organise whatever you need for a handful of dollars. [[spoiler: Only that he's secretly also local head of the StateSec and is running the whole operation to gather intel and secure outflow of foreign currencies]].
* GoodFeelsGood: One of the main driving motivations for Tadeusz.
* GoodTimesMontage:
** The very brief flashback of pre-war village festine.
** Tadeusz taking [[spoiler: Róża and Jadwiga]] for a boat ride and small picnic.
* GreatOffscreenWar: UsefulNotes/WorldWarII just wrapped. The first scene takes place during Warsaw Uprising.
* GreenEyedMonster: Vasyl is obssessed with Róża and just can't stand the fact other men have or can have her - even if he himself [[{{Hypocrite}} rapes her any given chance]] and doesn't understand what "no" means.
* HiddenInPlainSight: [[spoiler: Jadwiga, who is well and alive. Tadeusz didn't realise she's even there despite living in the house for few days, or maybe even weeks. What's more, there was an entire Soviet garrison stationed in the farm and they never noticed too]].
* HonorBeforeReason: One of main defining traits of Tadeusz. He's perfectly aware in just how deep shit he is, but he simply can't stop himself from doing the morally good thing, even if it eventually only makes him suffer more.
* HopeSpot: When władek shows up for the first time, it slowly starts looking like the situation might be stabilising. [[spoiler: Then, when vasyl is eventually killed, Tadeusz assumes all their worries are finally over]].
* ImagineSpot: [[spoiler: When tadeusz marries Jadwiga, he imagines she's Róża]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: At one point Tadeusz ends up fending off two looters with a makeshift spear he was using for mine sweeping.
* LastRequest: [[spoiler: Róża asks Tadeusz do marry her daughter and grant her citizenship this way]].
* MadeOfIron: Downplayed with Vasyl, as [[spoiler: neither Róża nor Jadwiga know ''how'' to kill]], so he survives a knife stab and being shot, but when [[spoiler: Tadeusz gets to him with a hatchet, he's brutally murdered in few quick chops]].
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: After [[spoiler: wiping out what's left of Vasyl's pack]], Tadeusz blows up their truck, making it look like a bunch of drunks having a fatal crash while carrying munitions.
* ManlyTears: When Tadeusz learns [[spoiler: Róża is untreatable. He stays in the cold, autumn storm, so he can pretend it's not his tears, but just the rain going down his face, all while weeping like a baby]].
* MarriageOfConvenience: Tadeusz ends up [[spoiler: marrying Jadwiga]], so she can gain Polish citizenship. [[spoiler: The final scene strongly suggests PerfectlyArrangedMarriage]].
* MistakenForSpies: Done ''deliberately'' by the interrogators, who want to [[spoiler: humiliate Tadeusz as much as possible for his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Army AK]] past, adding to it charges of being anti-Polish spy and saboteur on a Western payroll]].
* MoodWhiplash: Each and every bright spot is almost instantly followed by something horrible happening.
* MyGreatestFailure: Tadeusz has more than one reason to stick for Róża
** He let Anna, his wife, to be raped and murdered right in front of him and his only option back then was PlayingPossum.
** It's implied Tadeusz was the one who killed Johann, Róża's husband.
* NewOldWest: Not exactly modern setting, but still checks all other boxes.
* NoNameGiven: While Julian is named in story, he is credited as "władek's son". Played absolutely straight with Władek's daughter who isn't named at all. Certain characters get their names only from the credits, being nameless in-story.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: When they eventually end up fighting [[spoiler: Tadeusz chops Vasyl into thick slices. [[AnAxeToGrind Literally]]]].
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Suprisingly averted. Turns out [[spoiler: the blond-haired Slimeball was in fact the only humane of all the StateSec people in the area and genuinely tried to help Tadeusz's cause from the start]].
* ProperlyParanoid: When Tadeusz prepares for next attack of looters and rapists, he ends up ''creating a minefield'' on the courtyard of the stead. [[spoiler: It ends up ripping one of the looters into bloody pieces and scares away everyone else]].
* RRatedOpening: The opening scene is of a ''rape'', directly followed by an execution of the rape victim. And yet, compared with what happens later in the story, this is still very tamed by comparison.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: TheMovie
* RedHerring: Tadeusz explains to Róża how to use a handgun [[spoiler: but it's Jadwiga who shoots Vasyl]].
* ReplacementGoldfish: Both Róża for Tadeusz and Tadeusz for Róża, replacing their respective spouses.
* RuleOfSymbolism: The theee legged dog, which apparently seems to be BornLucky despite lacking a front paw, showing from time to time during more happy moments. [[spoiler: When it ends up dead, all bets for happy ending are off]].
* RunningGag: The same window gets constantly shattered during yet another explosion.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Modus operandi for Tadeusz. This eventually leads to [[spoiler: being captured, tortured and turned into a wreck by StateSec]].
* SecretlyDying: [[spoiler: Róża, as an aftermath of being raped so many times and the complications from rape-inducted miscarriage]].
* SettlingTheFrontier: In the most inhuman way possible, pretending that locals suddenly changed nationality, while raping, looting and destroying everything that wasn't already taken by war.
* ShowDontTell: So many times, rather than using any sort of exposition, dialogue or reference, a background event happens just to establish the grim situation of the post-war Mazuria.
* SignatureStyle: Extreme violence, diluted colours, rarely applied yet haunting music and [[spoiler: extremely BittersweetEnding one step away from outright downer]], all so characteristic for Smarzowski.
* SilenceIsGolden: Countless moments Tadeusz shares with Róża go without a word.
* SnowMeansDeath: And just ''how''. People start dying left and right once winter starts. Also, a flashback shows winter of '44 and Soviet conquest of Mazuria - it ain't pretty.
* TakeAThirdOption: Defied. During a small talk, Kazik says there is either the option for deportation of Mazurs or to not settle Mazury with Poles. When Tadeusz suggest taking a third option and simply live together, the UB officer laughs in his face for [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids being such naive idealist, rather than understanding realpolitik]].
* TimeSkip: when [[spoiler: Tadeusz is finally released by StateSec]], it can be anything from autumn '46 to '48, where the last deportation happend
* {{Tomboy}}: [[spoiler: Jadwiga, who acts and looks the part]]. Even when she dress up as a girl, she is still a tough farmgirl.
* UngratefulBastard: Downplayed with Władek, who is more of a hindrance than any help to Tadeusz throughout the movie and eventually [[spoiler: returns with his family to take over the farm, but doesn't throw Jadwiga out (he easily could) nor tries to interfere when Tadeusz returns one day]].
* UnreliableExpositor: Róża admits she has no idea why, upon carryign the dead body away from the house, there is a custom to leave an axe in the doorstep.
* VodkaDrunkenski: The Russian corporal stealing farm animals drinks ''half a bottle of vodka'' as if it was water.
* WarIsHell: The movie focus on the worst aspect of it - abuse of civilians, vantom rape and violation of basic human decency against "conquered" population, along with various justifications used to dehumanise the victims.
* WrongAssumption: When róża denies Tadeusz to wash her when she's bed-ridden and need constant cleaning due to [[spoiler: recovering from a miscarriage]], he assumes it's about modesty; turns out [[spoiler: Róża wanted to call her daughter, hiding in the attic]].


Funny
Even a film this bleak can have few bright spots.
* Tadeusz is carefully searching for mines to get to a pile of potatoes in the middle of a field. Suddenly a three-legged dog shows up and starts cheerfully limping from the pile toward the man, oblivious to the danger, then wags its tail while closing and keeps on walking down the field. All while Tadeusz is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness pale-white out of fear]] the dog might trigger one of the mines.
* Róża and [[AngerBornOfWorry her outburst in German]] when she was sure Tadeusz died in a mine explosion. And then she agrily orders him to [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther come for dinner before it gets cold]].
* Tadeusz strolls around the lake with a bucket, then casually takes out a grenade from his pocket, enjoys the view for a while and toss the grenade into the lake. In the next scene he's going back to farm, carrying entire bucket full of fishes. It's his casual, routine-like behaviour that makes it so damn funny.
* Piss-drunk Tadeusz and Władek trying and miserably failing to load a sack of potatoes
-->'''Tadeusz:''' Hold it (Tadeusz tries to pass the empty sack, only for Władek to fall flat on the floor, unconscious) You are not helping me, Władziu.
** The VisualPun itself, about falling like a sack of potatoes. Makes much more sense in Polish.

Trivia
* AllStarCast: Even extras were played by established actors.
* SleeperHit: The film was an unexpected box-office hit [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative for Polish standards]], especially considering it's a very, very dark tragedy of the TrueArtIsAngsty kind.
* TypeCasting: ''Róża'' was the height of Marcin Dorociński's typecast as noble badass in period pieces. The very same year ''Obława'' [[note]]Manhunt[[/note]] came out and his prior role was in ''Rewers''.

YMMV