Adventures of a Good Citizen

This film was lost during the war. One print was found somewhere near Moscow and sent to the Film Archive in Warsaw. The print was old and badly battered. Hence the quality of the present reduction from the original 35mm to 16mm is not perfect. But it could have been worse. There are two sentences spoken in Polish. At the beginning the CARPENTER shouts to one of the two men with a wardrobe: ‘The sky won’t fall in if you walk backwards!’ This is overheard (over the telephone) by THE GOOD CITIZEN (a civil servant) who also decides to try walking backwards. In the street, he collides with TWO MEN WITH THE WARDROBE, and now it is he and one of the other two who carry the wardrobe backwards out of the town and into the forest. A group of people (representing a cross-section of society) march with banners to protest against walking backwards. Inscriptions on the banners read: DOWN WITH WALKING BACKWARDS! THE SKY WILL FALL IN! FORWARD MARCH, EVERYBODY! &c. The Polish words heard at the end of the film mean: ONE MUST UNDERSTAND THE METAPHOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. — S.T.