Football in Polish fiction film

In spite of the enormous popularity of football in Poland, very few feature films about it have been made in our country. The author's objects of interest are the ten films, whose topic is football. Eight of them are full length feature films: Bitwa o Kozi Dwór (Battle of the Goat's Manor) by Wadim Berestowski (1961), Swieta wojna (The Holy War) by Julia Dziedzina (1965), Paragon gola (Shoot Paragon!) by Stanislaw Jedryka (1969), Gra o wszystko (Playing for Everything) by Andrzej Kotkowski (1978), Pilkarski poker (Soccer Poker) by Janusz Zaorski (1988), Piec minut przed gwizdkiem (Five Minutes Before the Whistle) by Miroslaw Gronowski (1988), Boisko bezdomnych (The Offsiders) by Kasia Adamik (2008) i Skrzydlate swinie (Winged Pigs) by Anna Kazejak (2010); the remaining is the football novel form the film Zawsze w niedziele (Always on Sundays) by Ryszard Ber (1965) and the medium length television film Nóz w glowie Dino Baggio (The Knife in Dino Baggio's Head) by Marek Piwowski (1999). According to the thematic rule identified in the analysed films, the author divides the analytical part of his work in two segments. In the first he discusses the mythical epoch of fair play, when football was not profit orientated: for pleasure, but also to develop social virtues. The iconic emblem of this epoch is the fictional scene of breaking the crossbar in the Russian team's goalpost in Pilkarski poker by Zaorski. The second segment is dedicated to the contemporary state of football, dominated by corruption and frauds. The epilogue consists of the discussion of the film Skrzydlate swinie, which goes without football; the centre of the plot are the football fans.