"The idea of mercy need not have anything in common with sentimental pity. One who forgives his opponent breaks away from him, setting himself free. Even the gravest sin calls for forgiveness, lest it poisons the lives of both the sinner and the one who considers himself innocent. The sentence 'where there is guilt, there is punishment' may be replaced - after Dostoyevsky and Bulgakov - with another one: 'where there is guilt, there is forgiveness'. … The importance and moral beauty of Marczewski's film lies in its top-down look at the reality of the communist Poland, a look from the perspective of true freedom which is contingent on forgiveness" (Tadeusz Sobolewski, "Kino" 1990). ESCAPE... is one of the key films of the political breakthrough of 1989.