Shivers

Tom, a boy living in Poland in 1955, discovers a small Madagascar stamp hidden in his father's library. The discovery sits alongside his mundane, tiresome home life and hints at a wider world beyond his daily routine. The stamp becomes a subtle motif that foreshadows his later entanglement with political ideology.

During a poetry lesson, bullies throw a boy's hat out of the window. When the boy climbs out to retrieve it, the teacher closes the window on his fingers, causing him to fall several floors and sustain serious injuries. The incident exposes the volatile climate of the school under an oppressive regime.

A new teacher arrives, teaching strict Stalinist theory and struggling to control the unruly class. He still pushes mandatory extracurriculars, like agricultural work in a communist youth program. The class is forced to march in line, even walking against a crowd of churchgoers during a demonstration of state loyalty.

The next day, Tom wakes to a raid by the secret police. His father is beaten and taken away to prison, and Tom witnesses the confiscation of his father's stamp book. The event marks a blunt entry into a world of state repression for the family.

Representatives from a pioneer camp visit the school, and Tom is chosen by a female Guide to join. Life in the camp is strict, militarized, and heavily surveilled, signaling the shift from family to collective identity under the regime.

At the first dinner, a window is smashed by a rock from outside, and the pioneers are ordered to apprehend the provocateur. Most of the group floods outside, and the Guide is later reprimanded yet urges the pupils to see catching the provocateur as their duty.

Dominik is bullied by Jerzy and Kazimierz, framed as an interrogation of pro-communist lines. Tom watches as the older boys exercise control through intimidation, establishing a climate of fear within the camp.

Jerzy and Kazimierz take Tom to their secret base, where they drink and listen to a Western radio. Tom learns of the Poznań protests, broadening his exposure to dissent and shaping his growing ideological ambitions.

Pioneer education tightens as Tom is urged to read theory and report on classmates. He is told to monitor and report back, and he overhears the headmaster arguing with the Guide about the Poznań protests, who then comforts him as the regime tightens its grip.

Days later, Dominik commits suicide after the mounting pressure in the camp. Tom exposes Jerzy and Kazimierz to the authorities in a bid to distance himself from their actions, attempting to separate himself from their influence.

Despite fears of expulsion, Tom is rewarded with a promotion to the executive council for his role in rooting out perceived 'dangerous enemies'. His father is freed from prison, but Tom refuses to return home, choosing to embrace the party line and the Guide's influence. A disturbing dream sequence hints at his deepening indoctrination.

The pioneer organization is abruptly dissolved, and the children are loaded onto trucks to be driven home. Tom loses a portrait of Marx amid the chaos, and a counselor discards it as the old symbols fade under a new reality.

In the film's final moment, Tom pastes his Madagascar stamp to the window of a train, a small but stubborn link to the past as the future looms. The act closes the loop on the stamp that started his journey and marks the end of his childhood under a changed political world.