The Ursus Factory was once one of the largest tractor production plants in Europe. For nearly the entire 20th century, it stood as a source of pride for Polish industry. The fall of communism marked the beginning of its decline. Today, the halls of Ursus stand empty or fall into ruin. Tens of thousands of stories of the people who worked there have been discarded. The filmmakers invited former employees of the plant – workers, technologists, managers, and secretaries – to take part in an experiment that would bring the factory to life once more. Through the memory of the body and sound, Ursus workers recreate a single day of labor in the plant. Before our eyes, a symphony emerges, built upon choreography and accompanied by a reconstructed soundscape of heavy industry.

The film evokes forgotten values associated with the industrial era – workers’ solidarity, community, and the ethos of labor. The revival of the factory sets in motion tractors scattered across Poland, machines once built by Ursus hands. These vehicles return to the place of their creation to pay tribute to their makers.

“Symphony of the Ursus Factory” is a creative documentary that employs the tools and aesthetics of participatory art, intertwining them with community, choreography, video, and experimental music. Above all, however, it is a commemoration of the Ursus Factory, of industrial and workers’ culture, of the struggle for human dignity in labor, and of a historical narrative that gives space to the biographies of working people.