The Weather Forecast (1983)

This is a Polish film focused on a group of elderly people in a retirement home. The oncoming winter projects to be a harsh one, and while the home can't get any coal shipments, it does get a shipment of coffins. They're brought in during the middle of the night, but it doesn't go unnoticed. Figuring the government intends to simply kill them, most of the residents grab what they have and take off across the countryside.

I didn't intend to watch a movie about a bunch of people who have been failed by their government during a crisis and have no choice but to fend for themselves. The brief clip Netflix ran didn't tell me anything about the movie. Still, it's funny how that works sometimes. Their algorithm must have a twisted sense of humor.

Everything up to the point they escape is shot in black and white. After that, it shifts to color. Most of the film is the escapees traversing the countryside, finding places to sleep for the night, scrounging up food. They make campfires, they share their stories. A few of them fool around or flirt like teenagers. They have an awkward encounter with a bunch of young folk in a mill, where the old folks lose their shit when they see them taking drugs.

Interspersed through this are cutaways to the official in charge of the home and the government trying to track them down. The effort expands in scope to helicopters, dogs, vans. The head official keeps insisting there's no way these old people could possibly have made it this far.

The thing I was struck by is the isolation, how easily they're able to move largely unnoticed or unremarked upon. They make their way through a massive rail depot/shipping yard, and there's no one around. The miller who lets them stay the night, if he thinks anything of 20 senior citizens all bundled up with their assorted suitcases and bags tromping through a marsh, he doesn't show it.