Trains on the Big Screen in Bydgoszcz
The Municipal Cultural Centre in Bydgoszcz, the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Kazimierz Wielki University, and Kino Orzeł invite audiences to the final screening in the unique film series “Train to the Cinema” (Pociąg do kina). Since February, viewers have embarked on an extraordinary journey through the history of Polish cinema, exploring films in which the railway serves not merely as a backdrop but as a fully-fledged protagonist of the story.
The final film in the series will be Janusz Morgenstern’s The Smaller Sky (Mniejsze niebo). The screenplay is based on motifs from The Smaller Sky, a novel by British writer John Wain.
Artur (Roman Wilhelmi), a middle-aged scientist, unexpectedly decides to leave his family and live at a railway station—sleeping in the station hotel, eating in station cafés, and spending his days within the confines of the building. A chance encounter with his friend Filip (Władysław Kowalski) leads to an unsuccessful attempt by a psychiatrist (Janusz Zaorski) to understand the outsider’s behaviour. Meanwhile, Artur’s wife Elżbieta (Beata Tyszkiewicz) reconnects with a former acquaintance, a television journalist (Jan Englert). Not only does he become involved with the abandoned family, but he also recognizes Artur’s story as a potential subject that could bring him professional success.
The retrospective has highlighted films in which trains, railway stations, and rail journeys become spaces of encounters, personal transformation, and important social reflection. According to the organizers, the relationship between cinema and the railway dates back to the very origins of filmmaking. It was the Lumière brothers who immortalized the famous arrival of a train at La Ciotat station, creating one of the most iconic images in film history.
Since then, railways have continued to fascinate filmmakers. Trains and stations provide unique settings, heighten dramatic tension, and offer rich metaphorical possibilities. They symbolize travel, change, and openness to the world, while at the same time functioning as enclosed microcosms where people from different backgrounds and life experiences come together.
Railways have also played a special role in Polish cinema. They have symbolized the construction of a new post-war order, witnessed social transformations, served as sites of confrontation between differing attitudes, and provided a setting for existential reflection. On screen, the train has become both a metaphor for hope and new opportunities and an image of everyday absurdities and the challenges faced by successive generations of Poles.
As part of the series, audiences have already seen:
- Man on the Tracks (Człowiek na torze, 1956), directed by Andrzej Munk,
- Night Train (Pociąg, 1959), directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz,
- People from the Train (Ludzie z pociągu, 1961), directed by Kazimierz Kutz,
- Train to Hollywood (Pociąg do Hollywood, 1987), directed by Radosław Piwowarski.
All screenings take place at Kino Orzeł and are preceded by introductory talks providing historical, cultural, and cinematic context for the films.
The final screening, The Smaller Sky, will be shown at Kino Orzeł on 17 June at 4:30 p.m.
Promotion Department
Paweł Jankowski
3 June 2026