APF: Man on the track | People from the empty area

Another meeting of the Polish Film Academy at the Student Cinema “Blue Blanket” in Toruń, realized in cooperation with the National Film Archive — Audiovisual Institute.

In the program:

Man on the Track — directed by Andrzej Munk,

People from an empty area — directed by Kazimierz Karabasz, Władysław Ślesicki.

After the screening of the films, the lecture will be given by: Artur Duda, professor at UMK

The meeting takes place as part of the first semester of the APF Plot “In Search of Identity. Polish Cinema until 1956”, dedicated to the development of cinema on Polish soil in the first half century of its existence — from pioneering productions to the first works of the Polish Film School.

The Polish Film Academy is a nationwide educational program of the National Film Archive — Audiovisual Institute, which disseminates knowledge about the history of Polish cinematography. Each meeting combines a film lecture with a film screening, allowing us to look at indigenous cinema through its creators, genres, themes and historical contexts.

In the academic year 2026/2027, Toruń for the first time joins the group of cities where the program of the Polish Film Academy is implemented.

The Man on the Track (1956)

Director: Andrzej Munk

The starting point of the film is the death of retired train driver Władysław Orzechowski, who dies on the railway tracks. The circumstances of the incident are investigated by the commission, and the image of the deceased hero gradually emerges from the accounts of subsequent people - colleagues and witnesses, whose memories differ depending on personal experiences and assessments.

Andrzej Munk thus builds an ambiguous portrait of man and at the same time undermines the simple mechanism of passing judgments. The story of Orzechowski becomes a story of the conflict between the experience of the individual and the expectations of the collective, between the former ethos of work and the reality of a changing system.

The film was written by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński and Andrzej Munk. The role of Władysław Orzechowski was played by Kazimierz Opaliński. “Man on the Track” lasts 80 minutes and is one of the most important films of the period of Polish cinema's departure from socialist realist schemes.

People of the Empty Area (1957)

Director: Kazimierz Karabasz, Władysław Ślesicki

“People from an Empty Area” is a short documentary dedicated to a group of young people living in post-war Warsaw. The camera observes their everyday life - meetings in the streets, conversations, boredom and the search for a place for themselves in a reality that does not give them many perspectives. The film lasts 15 minutes.

Karabasz and Ślesicki move away from the previously dominant didactic way of storytelling. Instead of imposing an unequivocal assessment of the characters, they allow them to speak in their own voice and look at their experience with greater attentiveness. The film is one of the characteristic examples of the so-called black series of the Polish documentary.