Nights and Days is a family saga of Barbara Ostrzenska-Niechcic, (played by Jadwiga Baranska) and Bogumil Niechcic, (played by Jerzy Binczycki) against the backdrop of the January Uprising of 1863 and World War I. The film is a rather straightforward and faithful adaptation of a novel by Maria Dabrowska with the same title. The plot is woven around the changing fortunes of a noble (upper-class) Niechcic family in the pre-WWI Poland. There are two main crossing threads: a social history one and an existential one. The cinematographic version is a condensation of the 12 part award winning TV serial of the same title and using the same cast and producers.
The main characters are the same two quarreling peasant families introduced in "Sami swoi" (Our Folks). The action of the film starts 18 years later. The old quarrels have been forgotten, but new problems keep popping up. They have no successors to inherit the farms. They invent a tricky and clever plan. The young granddaughter is to take over both of the farms after her marriage. Both Kargul and Pawlak have no rest until they carry out the plan. In the end, after numerous adventures and obstacles their cunning intrigue is fulfilled - the young marry and the land remains in the family's hands.
The life of the great Bolshevik leader before the Russian revolution is chronicled in this bio-pic. Much of the tale centers on his exile in Poland where Lenin becomes friends with two peasants. The little girl has a strong belief in the nationalist cause. Later Lenin hears she was killed for withholding information about him.
