A shocking work with a remarkable and tragic story.
The last picture of the prematurely deceased Andrzej Munk, an excellent director of feature and documentary films, who, next to Andrzej Wajda, was the most prominent representative of the Polish Film School. A patron of the prize awarded to young filmmakers by the Film School in Łódź since the 1960s.
While shooting for “Pasażerka”, Munk was killed in a car accident. His co-workers decided to release the film for screening in its unfinished, “impaired” form supplied only with an off-camera commentary to fill in the gaps in the storyline. Despite this the work turned out to be one of the most suggestive and moving depictions of the Holocaust in the world cinematography.
The film is based on two brilliant roles of Anna Ciepielewska (Marta) and Aleksandra Śląska (Liza, a member of the SS). The latter was so convincing in her portrayal of the Auschwitz death camp guard that after the premiere of the film she experienced hostility from the audience.
A story of a psychological struggle between a German officer and a Polish prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
During a voyage on a luxury ship, Liza sees a woman whose face evokes anxiety in her and brings up memories. During World War II, the German woman was a guard in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. She chose Marta, a proud and unyielding Polish woman, to be her help. Irritated with the prisoner’s attitude, Liza decided to break the woman at all costs, turning her into an ideal slave. To this end, she planned to use Marta’s feelings for her fiancé. The SS officer did not even hesitate to send the entire squad to the penal company, which in practice meant a death sentence. Over the years Liza was convinced that Marta, the only witness of her crime, died in Auschwitz. Now she recognizes her victim in the passenger of the ship.
In 1960 Andrzej Munk produced the television show “Pasażerka”. The script of the show and the feature film was based on a radio program “Pasażerka z kabiny 45” by Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka.
“Pasażerka” contains feature and visual references to Wanda Jakubowska's “Ostatni etap”.
