director Andrzej Munk
screenplay (based on the short story by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, ‘The Secret of Engine Driver Orzechowski’) Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, Andrzej Munk
director of photography Romuald Kropat
with Kazimierz Opaliński, Zygmunt Maciejewski, Zygmunt Zintel, Zygmunt Listkiewicz, Roman Kłosowski, Kazimierz Fabisiak
awards
Crystal Globe for direction at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, 1957
Warsaw Mermaid (Syrenka Warszawska) – Film Critics' Club SDP Award (along with the film entitled, ‘Lost Affections’), 1958
JERZY STEFAN STAWIŃSKI, THE SECRET OF ENGINE DRIVER ORZECHOWSKI [TAJEMNICA MASZYNISTY ORZECHOWSKIEGO]
Orzechowski belonged to that type of old-time engine-drivers who are harder and harder to be met on our locomotives. Brought up in the rigid school of the legendary mechanic Jarząbek from the Warsaw-Vienna Railway, and only after whose death he attained this position. (…) He kept his helpers in the grip of steel discipline. (…) In 1950 I was appointed head of the engine- house at Wolany, thus I became Orzechowski’s superior. It was a crucial period in the history of our railway system. There were calls to save coal, to extend the run of engines without intermediate, main or total overhauls. (…) But first of all each gang was to become a uniform collective. Orzechowski ignored it all. The worst thing was that he truly enjoyed widespread respect of the people.
ANDRZEJ WERNER, TELEVISION ACADEMY OF POLISH FILM [TELEWIZYJNA AKADEMIA FILMU POLSKIEGO]
‘Man on the Tracks’, begun in 1955 and shown in January 1957, fulfilled in the Polish cinema the same role ‘A Poem for Adults’ by Ważyk played in our literature. It brought a penetrating insight into the Stalinist reality, misrepresented by propaganda claptrap. Instead of proclaimed glory, it spotted unfair treatment of people. (…) Is the dignity of one’s vocation and duty represented by the officious executors of absurd economical norms or by this seemingly stand-offish engineer in white gloves? But the irrationalities of ‘the socialist labour race’, unmasked by Munk, are less important than the contempt with which the system treats ordinary man. This man, owing to Kazimierz Opaliński’s excellence in the role, is furnished with qualities challenging the prevailing patterns of conformity, observed not only on the screen.
history periods
