The first Polish postwar film made for young viewers. Its simple, adventurous plot about educational ambitions was heavily influenced by socialist realist propaganda. An easily appealing theme, young people learning to be glider pilots, is used to show the process of ideological development of the teenage characters. Buczkowski’s picture served also as a kind of advertising of communist organizations, where the party could recruit its new members, i.e. the Union of Polish Youth (ZMP) or the “Service to Poland” junior labor corps.
A number of amateurs and beginning actors had their debut in “Pierwszy start”. Among them there was Stanisław Mikulski, an icon of Polish cinema, the actor who gained immense popularity with his role of Hans Kloss in the classic series “Stawka większa niż życie” and who still enjoys the appreciation of the next generations of viewers.
A story of an orphan boy who after joining the “Service to Poland” organization can make his dreams come true.
An insubordinate country boy, Tomek Spojda, runs away from home where no one understands his passion for flying. On the train he joins a group of boys, members of the “Service to Poland” organization, who are on their way to a gliding training course. With the support of his new friends and the open-minded engineer Góracz, Tomek is admitted to the pilot school. Initially, he can’t settle in in the new environment. The boy keeps getting into trouble, doesn’t want to study, he is arrogant and selfish. Under the influence of Góracz, who never stops believing in him, and the ZMP collective, he changes his attitude and becomes one of the group leaders. However, this is not the end of his problems. Unknowingly, Tomek falls prey to an intrigue of the pre-war engineer Studziński, who is willing to do anything it takes to discredit Góracz and his work, a new glider model.
