Andrzej Munk (16 October 1921 – 20 September 1961) was a Polish film director,

screen writer A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

and

documentalist A documentalist is a professional, trained in documentation science and specializing in assisting researchers in their search for scientific and technical documentation. With the development of bibliographical databases such as MEDLINE, documentali ...

. He was one of the most influential artists of the post-Stalinist period in the People's Republic of Poland. His feature films '' Man on the Tracks'' (''Człowiek na torze'', 1956), '' Eroica'' (''Heroism'', 1958), '' Bad Luck'' (''Zezowate szczęście'', 1960), and '' Passenger'' (''Pasażerka'' 1963), are considered classics of the

Polish Film School Polish Film School ( pl, Polska Szkoła Filmowa) refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1956 and approximately 1963. Among the most prominent representatives of the school are Andrzej Wajda, And ...

developed in mid-1950s. He died as a result of a car crash in Kompina in a head-on collision with a truck.

Life

Munk was born in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family.Andrzej Munk.Powstańcze Biogramy na stronie Muzeum Powstania warszawskiego
www.1944.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 7 December 2014. Krystyna Magdalena Munk was his elder sister. Shortly before World War II (in June 1939), he graduated from a local gymnasium. During the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

he moved to

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, where he was forced to hide. Using a false name, he worked as a construction worker. In 1944 Munk took part in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...

. After the capitulation, he managed to leave the city and return to

and later Kasprowy Wierch, where he started working as a janitor at the

cable railway Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a he ...

station. After the war, Munk returned to Warsaw and joined the reopened Faculty of Architecture at the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...

. Because of poor health he left the university and later studied law at

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. Finally he moved to

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

, where he joined the Łódź Film and Theatre School. He graduated in 1951 and started working as a cameraman for the

Polska Kronika Filmowa Polish Film Chronicle ( pl, Polska Kronika Filmowa) (1944–95) was a 10-minute-long newsreel shown in Polish cinemas prior to the main film. It continued the traditions of the pre-war Polish Telegraphic Agency, and in Communist Poland was often us ...

(Polish Film Chronicle). In this period Munk finished several short films and documents. In 1948 he joined the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

, but in 1952 was expelled for "blameworthy behaviour".

Work

In 1956 he finished '' Man on the Tracks'' (''Człowiek na torze''), one of the most important Polish films of the 1950s. The following year he started giving lectures at his alma mater. In 1957 he finished '' Eroica'', a set of two film novels on the Polish idea of heroism and virtue. In 1960 Munk finished his third film, '' Bad Luck'' (''Zezowate szczęście''), a tragicomical story of a Polish

everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

who always finds himself in the wrong place and in the wrong time. Munk died in a car accident near

Łowicz Łowicz is a town in central Poland with 27,896 inhabitants (2020). It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999); previously, it was in Skierniewice Voivodeship (1975–1998). Together with a nearby station of Bednary, Łowicz is a ma ...

on 20 September 1961, while on his way home from the Auschwitz concentration camp where he was shooting '' Passenger'' (''Pasażerka''), released in its partially complete form in 1963. Since 1965 the Łódź Film School awards the best debut with the ''Andrzej Munk Film Award''. During the 2001

Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

a retrospective festival of his films was organized in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Munk, Andrzej 1921 births 1961 deaths Polish film directors 20th-century Polish Jews Warsaw Uprising insurgents Warsaw University of Technology faculty Road incident deaths in Poland Łódź Film School alumni 20th-century Polish screenwriters Male screenwriters 20th-century Polish male writers