The Finger of God

^director Antoni Krauze
^screenplay (based on a novel by Tadeusz Zawierucha ‘Selekcja’) Tadeusz Zawierucha, Antoni Krauze
^{director of photography} Jan Hesse
^music Zygmunt Konieczny
^with Marian Opania, Maciej Englert, Janusz Zaorski, Aleksander Benczak, Grażyna Chęcińska, Magda Teresa Wójcik
^awards
 Second Prize of the City of Locarno at Locarno International Film Festival, 1974
 Jury Special Commendation for Marian Opania for Best Acting and prize awarded by Studio Cinemas Council (Rada Kin Studyjnych) at the Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów, 1974
 Grand Prix, the ‘Jantar’73’ for Best Screenplay; Special Commendation for Marian Opania and Journalists Prize at International Young People’s Film Meetings ‘Youth on the Screen’ in Koszalin, 1973
 the Andrzej Munk prize, 1973

ANTONI KRAUZE, AT A MEETING WITH THE AUDIENCE [WYPOWIEDŹ NA SPOTKANIU Z PUBLICZNOŚCIĄ], ‘KINO’, 1973, NO. 7

I tell a story about a hero who fails. Talent itself does not always guarantee success; it’s not automatic. To say that everyone is the master of their fate is an exaggeration. There is something obviously wrong in the fact that a boy with such passion is so ignored and disrespected.

RAFAŁ MARSZAŁEK, INTOXIFICATION TREATMENT [KURACJA NAWYKOWA], ‘LITERATURA’, 1973, NO. 33

The climate of ‘The Finger of God’ hides tragicomic misfitting of a kind. (…) In various spheres of life the hero finds the same conformist slogan and so (…) feels alienated. And he agonizes knowing that it is he who possesses the truth. And that truth, misunderstood by his family and friends and repeatedly failing in state examinations begins to blur. Inexpressible and unfulfilled, could it not be simply be an illusion? ‘There is no one truth about life, although here is a true man’ – that is the latent motto of ‘The Finger of God’.