Munk’s penultimate short documentary film won the Critic’s Prize at the Mannheim International Film Festival in 1956 at a time when the festival was almost as important to documentary filmmakers as Oberhausen. The inhabitants of a bombed-out Warsaw are given an opportunity to reflect on their lives as they travel around the city on the local bus. Although humorous at times, the film, like his follow-up short Spacerek staromiejski (1958), deals with the theme of the city rising from the ashes with the resilience of its citizens.

Neil McGlone