Grabarczyk Mateusz, Pasikowski’s Pigs as an Illustration of Vetting in a Transitional Society

The changing socio-political reality in Poland following the fall of communism in 1989 brought the need for institutional reforms, including changes in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Polish: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych, hereinafter: „MSW”) and its Security Service (Polish: Służba Bezpieczeństwa, hereinafter: „SB” ). This endogenous process was shown in the 1992 film Pigs, written and directed by Władysław Pasikowski.

This film can certainly be classified as a cult classic in the history of Polish cinema, and it not only became an iconic picture, but also an abundant source of quotes. Although the movie was created shortly after the depicted events took place in 1990, and even though it lacks a certain historical perspective needed to describe the mechanism of change taking place in the state and society, the director managed to extract the essence of what was happening in the country at that time. As a result, Pigs provides an invaluable insight into the big...