The last film completed by the early-deceased Andrzej Munk, a distinguished feature film and documentary director, the greatest representative of the Polish Film School after Andrzej Wajda, patron of a prize awarded to young filmmakers by the Łódź Film School since 1960.
A screen adaptation of a short story by Jerzy Stefan Stawiński, a prominent scriptwriter who worked with the best Polish artists, co-author of the success of the Polish Film School and author of scripts for such masterpieces as “Sewer”, “Eroica” and “Pułkownik Kwiatkowski”.
The best role in the career of Bogumił Kobiela, who created an exceptionally complex and at the same time very realistic psychological portrait of the main character.
A multidimensional, complex tragicomedy about the life of an unlucky opportunist set against the backdrop of several dozen years of Polish history.
The main character, Jan Piszczyk, tries to persuade the head of a correctional facility to let him stay behind prison walls, where he feels safe. To achieve this goal, he tells him the story of his life. Ever since he was a small child, Piszczyk has been torn apart by two opposite character traits: ambition and conformism. He played many different roles in his life, but in the end bad luck always got to him: every smile of fortune, every opportunity turned against him. Whenever he achieved success, he usually ruined it himself, blaming those around him for his mishaps. It was only in a prison cell that he felt free from responsibility and fear of his own identity.
The film draws on well-known psychological, philosophical and sociological concepts, such as Erich Fromm’s “escape from freedom”.
“Bad Luck” ranked 7th in the poll of the best Polish films conducted by “Kwartalnik Filmowy” magazine and was thus voted the best Polish comedy.
