I'm a Butterfly

(Motylem jestem)


1976   >   comedy

The movie is a spinoff of a hugely popular television series about a construction engineer in the Seventies Poland. Loved by the audience, Andrzej Kopiczyński plays the main character Stefan Karwowski and is accompanied by a whole bunch of the TV series’ characters such as Director Wardowski, Minister Zawodny, technician Maliniak and the “Working Woman” played by Irena Kwiatkowska . A popular singer Irena Jarocka was cast as Karwowski’s extramarital love interest.

Stefan Karwowski is one of the engineers supervising the construction of the Central Train Station in Warsaw. Suddenly he learns that he will take part in a TV show “Man of the Month”. He starts getting ready for his TV gig.  In his school years, he performed in a puppet theatre.  This experience becomes inspiration for his TV act with a puppet called Wacek.  Karwowski receives tremendous support from all the workers from the construction site, who are terribly excited by their colleague’s TV debut. Following a wide-reaching promotional campaign and the contribution from the company’s fund, Stefan becomes a Man of the Month.  During preparations for the show, he gets introduced to a singer Irena Orska.  After Stefan’s victory in the show, they are getting to know each other better. They spend a night out at a club. Enjoying his new status of a TV star, Karwowski tells his wife that he was offered to perform together with Irena. He is now a rare guest on the construction site as he spends most of his time touring with the singer. During one of their trips outside of the city, Karwowski tells Irena that he is going to leave his wife for her.  Completely stunned by this confession,  Irena runs away without a word of explanation,  leaving him stranded miles away from Warsaw.  Guilt-ridden Karwowski returns home where he confesses everything to his wife Magda. He decides to go back to his former, orderly life of a construction engineer.  However, it turns out that he was replaced at work by his old foe, engineer Morszczuk. Karwowski gives an ultimatum: either he gets back his old job or he leaves the company. Director Wardowski agrees to give Karwowski back his old job.


Crew:

director
Jerzy Gruza
script
Jerzy Gruza, Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz
d.o.p.
Mieczysław Jahoda
designer
Halina Dobrowolska
editor
Maria Orłowska
music
Jerzy Matuszkiewicz
cast
Andrzej Kopiczyński, Irena Jarocka,
Irena Kwiatkowska, Anna Seniuk,
Janusz Kłosiński, Roman Kłosowski

Awards:

PFFF, Gdynia
Best actor in a leading role (Andrzej Kopiczyński)
PFFF, Gdynia
Audience Award
Materials: SD
Length: 88’

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