Drawing description

A portrait of a young man standing on the threshold of adulthood, who at all costs wants to get out of a sense of powerlessness and insecurity. Played by the director himself, Andrzej Leszczyc, after being removed from the list of students in the last year, decides to do “something irrevocable”. He voluntarily reports for military service, declaring his readiness for immediate incarnation. He still has a few hours left before the train leaves for Kołobrzeg. This short stretch of time is filled with wandering through the city and random encounters and conversations that form a meandering portrait of a generation trying to find its own language and its own place in the world.

Skolimowski consciously breaks with the classic way of conducting the narrative. Loose, episodic construction, improvised dialogues, raw images and the combination of various cinematic conventions give “Rysopis” the energy of new-wave cinema. “Rysopis” was created in exceptional conditions. Skolimowski made further parts of the film as an etude during his studies at the Film School in Łódź, using available materials and resources, found locations and the help of friends and colleagues from the school. Finally, in 1963, he assembled the etudes into a full-length whole, which he presented as his graduation film. Skolimowski was a screenwriter, director, lead actor and set designer in the film. He transformed the experiences of his student days into a personal audiovisual language, creating one of the most important cinematic portraits of young people of the era of little stabilization.

Original title: Rysopis
Country of production: Poland
Year of manufacture: 1964
Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
Cast: Jerzy Skolimowski, Elżbieta Czyżewska, Tadeusz Minc, Jacek Szczesk
Duration: 75 min.

Hall: Stolica
Lecture - Paulina Kwiatkowska
Projection from DCP

“LPDF w Iluzjonie” is a series presenting films included in the List of Polish Film Heritage — a project initiated by the National Film Archive — Audiovisual Institute in 2025 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the institution. The initiative aims to identify, protect and disseminate works that have shaped the history, language and imagination of Polish cinema. It includes both acclaimed masterpieces and pioneering films, socially significant and formally and technologically groundbreaking — works that remain an important reference point for future generations of creators and viewers.

LPDF does not create a closed canon or ranking of “best videos”. It is a living project, developed with subsequent editions, that organizes the common film memory and reminds that heritage exists above all when it remains present in the culture. The list is therefore not only a collection of the most important works of Polish cinematography, but also an invitation to revisit them.

The cycle “LPDF in Illusion” is a natural development of this idea. Once a month, on Sunday afternoons, we invite you to screenings of the films included in the List. It will be an opportunity to meet the classics — both in restored digital versions and through the materiality of archival film tapes. We hope that each screening will make it possible to rediscover these works: not only as recognized titles and cultural monuments, but above all as living works that can still move, inspire and open up new interpretive perspectives.