On 9 May 2025, the film “The Passenger Andrzej Munk” will have its world premiere. A documentary portrait of Andrzej Munk, one of the leading creators of the Polish Film School, was directed by Michał Bielawski. The film will be screened as part of the 22nd edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Warsaw, Poznań, Gdynia, Katowice, Łódź, and Wrocław. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a co-producer of the film.

Andrzej Munk – Master of the Polish Film School

Andrzej Munk was a Polish film director and one of the key representatives of the movement known as the Polish Film School. His most recognisable works include “Man on the Tracks” (1956), “Eroica” (1957), “Bad Luck” (1960), and “Passenger” (1963). This last film marked a turning point in how the Holocaust was understood and portrayed in world cinema. “The Passenger Andrzej Munk”, a documentary by Michał Bielawski, offers a portrait of the outstanding artist through archival materials.

The idea for a full-length documentary dedicated to Munk emerged in 2021, on the 100th anniversary of the director’s birth. Michał Bielawski spent over three years researching the archives and shaping the film’s narrative. He managed to access many previously unknown film materials, recorded interviews, family photographs with handwritten notes, letters written by Munk to his wife, as well as collections of negatives, photographs and stills from the archives of the Documentary and Feature Film Studios, the Photo Library, the Cinematography Museum, and the Polish Press Agency. The film also includes numerous interviews, including with Professor Marek Henrykowski, film scholar and Munk’s biographer; Anna Dyrka-Brzozowska, assistant director on “Passenger”; and Roman Polański, Krzysztof Zanussi and Stefan Szlachtycz, who studied under his supervision at the Łódź Film School.

“The Passenger Andrzej Munk” - author Maciej Kozłowski / StudioMunka SFP

“The Passenger Andrzej Munk” - world premiere

For Michał Bielawski, “The Passenger Andrzej Munk” is, above all, a story about a man immersed in history. The documentary is a record of artistic evolution and a reflection on the emotions that accompanied the director. The premiere of Michał Bielawski’s film at Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Warsaw will be accompanied by a mini-retrospective, “Andrzej Munk. Views”, at the Iluzjon cinema in Warsaw. Additionally, the film will be shown to audiences in Poznań, Gdynia, Katowice, Łódź, and Wrocław. The detailed programme is available on the festival website: mdag.pl.

“The Passenger. Andrzej Munk” is a Studio Munk production, financed by the Polish Filmmakers Association with the support of the Polish Film Institute. The film’s co-producers are the Documentary and Feature Film Studios, Telewizja Polska S.A., the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, and the Educational Film Studio in Łódź.