
Cast
Paul Rhys (Chopin)Penelope Wilton (Delfina)Valentina Igoshina (Delfina)Elizabeth McGorian (Delfina)John Shrapnel (Iwaszkiewicz)Patricia Quinn (George Sand)Corin Redgrave (Judge)Terence Rigby (Sydow)John Bird (1st Official)John Fortune (2nd Official)Peter Woodthorpe (3rd Official)Vernon Dobtcheff (Art Gallery lecturer)Michael Gough (The Doctor)Rebecca Tremain (Jane Stirling)Brook Williams (Old Scottish Lord)Roger Hammond (Schwabe)Ben Walden (Tytus)Samantha Kirley (Lady Bellhaven)
Director
Tony Palmer
Synopsis
Warsaw, 1945. The invading Nazis are gone and, in a symbolic gesture, the preserved heart of Polish composer and national hero Frédéric Chopin is returned. Under German rule, even the mention of Chopin was forbidden; now, as the war-battered nation reassembles itself, author Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz recommences work on his biography of the great man. A strange woman contacts him, carrying revelatory letters that she claims the composer wrote her great-grandmother, his lover. But is the woman a fraud? Are the letters forgeries? And since they show Chopin in a less than flattering light, would Poland prefer to suppress them?