GODSPEED, LOS POLACOS!
THE LOST STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST ROADTRIP.
After slipping the Iron Curtain, five kayakers set their sights on the first descent of the world’s deepest canyon but must risk it all to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc.
NOW STREAMING ON
SUMMARY
During the Cold War, Poland’s youth looked for any way to break away from the monotony of life under Communist rule. In the City of Krakow, a group of university students formed a kayaking club as a tool to explore their local rivers and avoid participation in Communist parades and rallies. After experiencing the thrill of Poland’s one and only class III rapid, club members Andrzej Pietowski, Jurek Majcherczyk, and Piotr Chmielinski (who would go on to be the first person to paddle the Amazon river source to sea) set their sights on the impossible - leaving the Eastern Bloc to paddle whitewater.
Godspeed, Los Polacos! tells the story of five kayakers on the edge of adulthood who skillfully pull the strings of the Soviet system, and find themselves on an expedition in the Americas with a six-wheeled military truck, homemade equipment, and little to no whitewater skills. The story follows their epic two-year journey that culminates in the record-breaking first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, and finds the kayakers in Soviet cross-hairs after they leverage their newfound fame to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Poland, like Ukraine, is a historically nebulous borderland separating Eastern and Western Europe. It’s a country that has stood the test of time on little more than a fierce sense of national identity. ‘Godspeed, Los Polacos!’ takes a look at Eastern Europe behind the Iron Curtain through the fast paced lens of one of history’s most exciting kayaking expeditions in an effort to better understand the geo-political climate of the region today.
