Salto

^director Tadeusz Konwicki
^screenplay Tadeusz Konwicki
^{director of photography} Kurt Weber
^music Wojciech Kilar
^with Zbigniew Cybulski, Jerzy Block, Włodzimierz Boruński, Gustaw Holoubek, Irena Laskowska, Marta Lipińska, Andrzej Łapicki, Zdzisław Maklakiewicz, Wojciech Siemion
^awards
 Honorary Diploma at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, 1967

[MONOLOGUE OF KOWALSKI-MALINOWSKI FROM THE FILM]

I had people in my sway and I knapped stones on the road, I gave away houses and begged for a piece of bread, I shot at people and was strangulated by a noose of barbed wire.

ANDRZEJ WERNER, ‘SALTO’, TELEVISION ACADEMY OF POLISH FILM [TELEWIZYJNA AKADEMIA FILMU POLSKIEGO]

It is not by accident that the character of Kowalski-Malinowski in ‘Salto’ is created by Zbigniew Cybulski. (…). He is not only an actor but also the now-mythical embodiment of the AK (Home Army) generation, he is not only Zbyszek Cybulski, but also Maciej Chełmicki [hero of ‘Ashes and Diamonds’] (…). The problem now is the myth of the occupation as it is perceived years later. (…). The mythologised past plays in the present time the role of a surrogate, fictitious existence (…). Yet, ‘Salto’ was not made in the tonality of a consistent grotesque. Konwicki, in a manner characteristic of his art, changes the perspective of perception. From behind the all-powerful, it would seem, jeering, now and then comes to the fore – solemnity. What appears pathetic or funny, becomes truly tragic.