Passenger (1963 film)

Passenger
Passenger
Directed by	Andrzej Munk; Witold Lesiewicz
Written by	Andrzej Munk; Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka
Starring	Aleksandra Śląska
Cinematography	Krzysztof Winiewicz
Edited by	Zofia Dwornik
Music by	Tadeusz Baird
Release date	1963
Running time	62 minutes
Country	Poland
Language	Polish

Passenger (Polish: Pasażerka) is a 1963 Polish feature film directed by Andrzej Munk. When Munk died in a car crash during production, the unfinished film was assembled for release by directors Witold Lesiewicz and Andrzej Brzozowski.^[1]

Passenger, using the form of a documentary, relates the experiences of one female SS officer (played by Aleksandra Śląska) serving at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, as well as her relationship with a Polish political inmate, Marta (played by Anna Ciepielewska), whose life she manages to save on occasion.

Production history[]

Munk died in a car accident while the film was in production and the completed scenes were combined from parts of original footage and screenplay sketches by Witold Lesiewicz. The methods used are explained in a voiceover during the course of the film, so its unfinished state itself takes a documentary form. Parts of the film were shot at Auschwitz. The source was a radio drama Passenger from Cabin Number 45, written by Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka in 1959. Posmysz's play was later reworked into a novel. It was published in 1962 as Pasażerka.^[2]

Cast[]

Aleksandra Śląska - Lisa Kretschmer, former SS Aufseherin at Auschwitz ^[3]
Anna Ciepielewska - Marta, the Polish inmate
- Capo
- Auschwitz Prisoner
Barbara Horawianka - Nurse
- Capo
- Guard, Inga Weniger
Andrzej Krasicki - Commission Member
Jan Kreczmar - Walter Kretschmer, Lisa's husband
Irena Malkiewicz - Oberaufseherin Madel
- Lagerkommandant Grabner
Kazimierz Rudzki - Commission Member

Awards[]

The film Passenger was entered into the 1964 Cannes Film Festival where it won a FIPRESCI Award.^[4] The film was also selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards.^[5]

References[]

^ "Passenger: A film by Andrzej Munk". SecondRunDVD.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
^ The novel was translated into Hungarian (1963), Czech (1964), Russian (1964), Bulgarian (1965), Slovak (1965), Latvian (1966), Lithuanian (1966), Moldovan (1966), Romanian (1967), German (1969), Japanese (1971), Ukrainian (1972) and Kazakh (1986)
^ Kaczyński, Andrzej (25 May 2010), "The Passenger by Zofia Posmysz" ["Pasażerka" Zofii Posmysz], Culture.pl (in Polish), Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Artykuł.
^ "Festival de Cannes: Passenger". Festival-Cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^{[verification needed]}

External links[]

Pasazerka at IMDb

[secondrundvd.com-1] "Passenger: A film by Andrzej Munk". SecondRunDVD.com. Retrieved 2011-11-06.

[2] The novel was translated into Hungarian (1963), Czech (1964), Russian (1964), Bulgarian (1965), Slovak (1965), Latvian (1966), Lithuanian (1966), Moldovan (1966), Romanian (1967), German (1969), Japanese (1971), Ukrainian (1972) and Kazakh (1986)

[culture.pl2-3] Kaczyński, Andrzej (25 May 2010), "The Passenger by Zofia Posmysz" ["Pasażerka" Zofii Posmysz], Culture.pl (in Polish), Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Artykuł.

[festival-cannes.com-4] "Festival de Cannes: Passenger". Festival-Cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-02-28.

[5] Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^{[verification needed]}

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