The film tells the story of Agnieszka, an industrial worker toiling in the shipping industry in Gdansk during the Cold War. The movie follows Agnieszka’s life up until her termination from her shipyard job as a crane operator. While she was nothing more than one of numerous factory workers, the firing of Agnieszka provides the spark needed to ignite the Solidarity Movement in communist Poland.

The character of Agnieszka is based on a real Polish worker from the Solidarity Movement Era. While the movie is not advertised as a historical piece, it expresses the events that took place in 1980s Poland as the country surged ahead in its fight for independence. As is characteristic of Schlöndorff films, Strike expresses history through the perspective of ordinary people living through the extraordinary times. The choice of the filmmaker to focus in on average people in the story is shown with the relegated role of Lech Walesa.

Walesa was the leader of the Solidarity Movement in Poland and helped spark the movement in the shipyards of Gdansk. However, in the movie, Agnieszka is the primary focus of the story and Walesa appears in a limited role. Strike is open to public viewing every night of its time in Chicago.

To read more about the premiere of Strike, visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org and www.artic.edu