Themes: Haunted By the Past, Life Under Occupation
Main Cast: Aleksandra Slaska, Anna Ciepielewska, Janusz Bylczynski, Marek Walczewski
Release Year: 1963
Country: PL
Run Time: 62 minutes
Plot
Aleksandra Slaska portrays a German matron taking a long ocean voyage with her husband. While roaming the deck, she spots a passenger she thinks she recognizes. That she does: The passenger (Anna Ciepielewska) had been an inmate at Auchwitz, where Slaska served as a guard. An alternately realistic and illusory study in guilt and retribution, The Passenger (original title: Pasazerka) was halfway through production in 1961 when its director, Andrzej Munk, was killed in an auto accident. Munk's friends loyally tried to complete the project, bridging a few scenes with still pictures (in the manner of "restored" film classics like the 1937 Lost Horizon and the 1954 A Star is Born). Finally released in Poland in 1963, The Passenger didn't make it to the US until 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cast
Aleksandra Slaska - Lisa
Anna Ciepielewska - Marta
Janusz Bylczynski - Kapo; Marek Walczewski - Tadeusz; Elzbieta Czyzewska - Inmate (uncredited); John Rees - Narrator in the English version; Kazimierz Rudzki
Credit
Jerzy Possack - Art Director, Louise Stjernsward - Costume Designer, Wieslawa Chojkowska - Costume Designer, Witold Lesiewicz - Director, Andrzej Munk - Director, Witold Lesiewicz - Editor, Zofia Dwornik - Editor, Tadeusz Baird - Composer (Music Score), Stanislaw Wislocki - Musical Direction/Supervision, Teresa Tomaszewska - Makeup, Krysztof Winiewicz - Cinematographer, Tadeusz Wybult - Set Designer, Andrzej Munk - Screenwriter, Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka - Screenwriter, Zofia Posmysz-Piasecka - Book Author
