The cinema premiere of the film The Master by dr hab. Maciej Barczewski prof. UG from the Faculty of Law and Administration UG is scheduled for August 27, 2021. Ewa Karolina Cichocka talks about the film, its protagonist, the genesis of the script and the lawyer's film debut.

- The Master is a full-length picture about the story of Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, a prisoner of Auschwitz, and also your first film. It premiered at the 45th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia. As reported by the festival press at the time, it won critical acclaim, and one of the interviews with you was entitled Master's Debut. So success at the very beginning of your film career?

- Thank you for the kind words. But we will only be able to talk about success if the audience remembers this film in a few years. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Poles stopped going to the cinemas, even after they were almost fully opened, the audience shrank by 80 per cent, and in this situation, it will not be easy to achieve attendance success for this and other Polish films made this year. If, however, it survives the test of time and finds its audience even in later circulation, then perhaps we can talk about success.

- Professionally, you are a lawyer and lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk. Meanwhile, you are also a screenwriter and film director. Is film in your life a passion, a dream come true, a hobby or a plan B? Is it difficult to professionally combine two so different fields? After all, you didn't make a film about... lawyers.

- Actually, because of the film, I limited my legal practice to a minimum. However, in my case, creative activity goes hand in hand with university work. Contrary to appearances, the specific character of these two professions is similar in essence and is based on creative and analytical intellectual work. And copyright law, in which I specialise, focuses precisely on the protection of creative activity, including filmmaking. You are a lecturer and a scientist on a daily basis, whereas on the set of a feature film you are there once every few years. This is why many directors successfully combine work at the university with artistic work. Besides, the law has never been an obligation for me, but a passion, just like the 10th muse.

- Why are you so interested in the wartime history of an Auschwitz prisoner? Who was Tadeusz Pietrzykowski and why did his story make you want to make a film about him?

- A few years ago, I read Tadeusz Borowski's camp stories on which Andrzej Wajda based his film 'Krajobraz po bitwie'. I found a sentence there that intrigued me greatly: The memory of number 77, who once boxed Germans as he wished, still lingers here, taking revenge in the ring for what others got in the field. This one sentence fascinated me because it spoke of a previously unknown figure who, for the prisoners of Auschwitz, became a symbol of victory over Nazi terror. For his contemporaries, boxing fights in the camp offered hope of rescue and victory.

- You were among the golden ten people nominated for the title of 2020 Man of the Year by Dziennik Bałtycki. The subject matter of the film and the figure of the main character were recognised by the competition jury as role models. What does it mean for you to be honoured with such a character nowadays?

- Pietrzykowski, like the biblical David, fought in the camp arena against Goliath, just as each of us struggles with adversity every day. The fact that he fought his battles in the most difficult conditions, in the worst time and place in the world, and against all odds still won, gives each of us hope that there is no such obstacle, no such adversity that ultimately cannot be overcome. It is an upper-crust way of saying that we are all warriors in the ring of our own lives. Pietrzykowski's on-screen character reminds us that even if all hope is fading, even in the worst of circumstances we should not lose it and continue fighting.

- The subject of the camp and the prisoners is not just a fact of history for you. Your family has its memories and experiences. Did this also have a bearing on the choice of subject for the film?

- Yes, it did. My grandfather was a prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. I lived under the same roof with him for many years. So in a sense, we had the subject of Auschwitz in our family bloodstream. When I was thinking about what I would like to make my feature-length debut about, I concluded that it would be worth telling a story set in a place that was so strongly in my head and heart.

- Making a historical film is not easy. I am not only thinking of a team of historians, documentary filmmakers, make-up artists and set designers. It probably requires a lot of money. How did you, a debutant, manage to convince the producers and obtain financing?

- You would probably have to ask the producers to whom I approached with the idea for the film. Like me, they saw the film potential of the story. Apparently, the script had the power to convince them that it would make a good film.

- The script of the film is based on the fate of a real person. The requirements of film language and the expectations of the audience influence the narrative. What was most important in this case, the historical truth or the plot?

- Most of the events depicted in The Master really happened. However, as with other fact-based feature films, the need to maintain a clear narrative and emotional tension within the one and a half-hour story necessitated changes, whether in the chronology of events, locations, or characters the main character encounters. Due to the rules of film drama, such changes were necessary, but in each case, I wanted to maintain the historical texture of the events as much as possible, as well as to bring out the truth about the emotional essence of the main character.

- Apart from historical realities and facts, the film also required professional knowledge of boxing. Are you also familiar with this discipline?

- Before I started working on The Master, I had no contact with this sport. It wasn't until the process of preparing the screenplay, numerous conversations with boxers and reading Pietrzykowski's notes that I discovered its nature. It turned out that the essence of boxing is much more complex than it superficially seems. A staff of experienced trainers, fight choreographers and stuntmen made sure the boxing duels were credible on screen.

- The leading role is played by Piotr Głowacki. Was it easy to cast and choose film roles? What influenced these decisions?

- When I started working on The Master, some people suggested that the main role should be played by a strongly built actor with the appearance of a killer. Pietrzykowski's strength lay not in his size, which was affected by the conditions of the camp, but in his masterly technique and fortitude. I knew that to build his screen persona convincingly I would need an actor who at first glance would be the opposite of the boxer archetype. Someone who looks inconspicuous, even harmless, but in whose eyes you can see two clenched fists. At the same time, it should be an actor who, for the role of an Auschwitz prisoner, is willing to undergo a radical transformation of his body for several months and master the boxing technique to the extent that it is possible to fight without editing cuts and a stunt double. I am convinced that for years Polish cinema has not seen a role that would require such a far-reaching physical and technical commitment from an actor. Piotr Głowacki was my first and only choice and he more than lived up to these expectations. As did the other actors who, among other things, had to credibly master the dialogues in German. However, working with such artists as Grzegorz Małecki, Marcin Bosak or Marian Dziędziel, I could rest assured about their commitment and the level of their acting creations.

- Only a few viewers were able to see The Master during last year's film festival in Gdynia. When can we, the cinema audience, expect the premiere and public screening?

- The Master will be released in Polish cinemas on August 27.

- Thank you very much for the interview and I look forward to the screening.

Photographs: Robert Pałka

A warrior with the soul of an artist

Exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War. Tadeusz Pietrzykowski

Nearly 30 works by Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, made in various techniques and dealing with a variety of subjects, will be on display until the end of August at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk.

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was a pre-war Polish vice-champion and Warsaw champion in boxing. In 1939, he fought to defend Warsaw. Pietrzykowski was sent in the first transport to KL Auschwitz, where he was labelled number 77. According to various estimates, he fought more than 40 boxing bouts in the camp.

Tadeusz Pietrzykowski went down in history as a famous boxer fighting for his life in Auschwitz. He was also interested in painting. Before the war, he dreamed of studying architecture at the Warsaw Polytechnic, but the war made this impossible. After the liberation, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as an auditor. The exhibition presents 29 original works by Pietrzykowski.

The paintings come from Eleonora Szafran-Pietrzykowska's Private Archive

https://muzeum1939.pl/wystawa-czasowa-tadeusz-pietrzykowski-wojownik-o-duszy-