Passenger Boxshot
Passenger
Poland 1961-1963
Main Feature : 58 minutes
Special Feature : 47 minutes
Certificate: 15
Sound: Original Mono (restored)
Black & White 1.66:1
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English On/Off
buyPAL R0 RRP: £12.99
Release Date: 25 Sep 2006
Passenger has been called 'one of the most audacious fictions ever made about the Holocaust'. Director Munk died in a car crash, aged just 39, in the middle of filming. His friend, Witold Lesiewicz, and his colleagues decided to complete the film to what they believed were Munk's intentions and assembled it using the existing footage, Munk's still photographs and a voice-over narration.

Finally released in 1964, the film won main awards at Cannes and Venice and has been described by those who have seen it as an unfinished masterpiece. Unseen for far too long, this is the first-ever DVD release of this unique film anywhere in the world.

more about the film
Passenger Stills
Special Features
- The Last Pictures - a rare 45-minute documentary about Munk and Passenger, made in 2000 by Andrzej Brzozowski who was Munk's Assistant Director on the film. Never broadcast outside of Poland, it is a fitting tribute to Munk and features contributions from directors Andrzej Wajda and Roman Polanski.

- New digital transfer with restored image and sound.

- New and improved English subtitle translation.

- Optimal quality dual-layer disc.

- Booklet featuring essays on the film and Munk, by film critic/writer Stuart Klawans and academic Ewa Mazierska.


Andrzej Munk's PASSENGER was originally shot in Dyaliscope in 1960/61; unfortunately, neither the film's Producers nor the Polish National Archives were able to provide us with a copy in this aspect ratio. The best copy they had available was in 1:66; we delayed the release in the hope that the producers would be able to locate and provide us with a suitable Dyaliscope version.

In the meantime, we also tracked down the documentary "The Last Pictures" made by Andrzej Brzozowski, Munk's Assistant Director on PASSENGER. The many clips of PASSENGER used in Brzozowski's documentary are also in 1:66.

After months of searching, it seemed most unlikely that the producers would locate a reasonable quality version, without burnt-in subtitles and in the original aspect ratio. With no surviving member of the production team alive to consult, we finally decided it was more appropriate to make this important film available than to withold it's release. We hope you agree.
Main Cast and Crew
Liza - Urszula Modrzynska
Marta - Grazyna Staniszewska
Capo - Andrzej Szalawski
Female Prisoners - Henryk Borowski
Nurse - Aleksander Fogiel
Capo - Mieczyslaw Kalenik


Directed by - Andrzej Munk

Written by Andrzej Munk and Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka
Cinematography - Krzysztof Winiewicz
Editor - Zofia Dwornik
Original Music - Tadeusz Baird

Passenger was completed by - Witold Lesiewicz, Wiktor Woroszylski, Z. Dwornik, W. Kaminski, T. Lomnicki, A. Piotrowski, M. Rutkowska, W. Tomaszewski, H. Wasilewski.

Appreciation
"I can think of no other movie to compare with Munk's, in the precise and harrowing balance of romantic beauty and profound terror" - New York Times

"Its very incompleteness reinforces the powerful message that whilst the Holocaust may belong to history its legacy should never be forgotten" Radio Times ****

"Passenger captures, arguably better than any other film, a sense of horrifying blankness, a matter-of-fact degradation, which conveys something of what the experience of Auschwitz might have been like." - CineScene

1964 Cannes Film Festival / Special Mention - Andrzej Munk
1964 Venice Film Festival / Winner - Film Critics Award


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