Two mordant long-shorts (40 minutes apiece) from Polish New Waver Andrzej Munk, show a tremendous gift cut short by his early death in 1963. Both are dark farces from the tail end of WWII. In the first, a pragmatic underground fighter weaves thru battle lines of Poles, Hungarians and retreating Germans to pass on offers of collaboration & information that come to nothing; story number two is a classic POW tale about the sole escapee from a German camp who gets nowhere, but hides in an attic to inspire the camp. When he dies, his protectors must deal with the body. Munk seems to be miles ahead of Czech Wave compatriot Andrzej Wajda in aligning sophisticated technique & tone within his narrative design & embedding it all in the fabric & stylization of his film. But with so little from his CV available, it’s hard to know if he could he do more than these tasty appetizers.
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