Man on the Tracks

As means of transport, trains have a certain mystical quality attached to them. This has a lot to do with the fact that whenever trains fail or succeed in carrying out their tasks of moving passengers from one place to another, it is not only them which fail or succeed as machines as the blame is attributed to a whole range of persons whose jobs are related to trains. It is precisely keeping this thing in mind that Polish director Andrzej Munk set out to direct "Czlowiek Na Torze", a film about the lives of Polish railway workers. His film questions the role of a dead railway worker who went much too far in the course of his job before after having been being fired by the authorities. This film was made possible with the help of Polish Railway employees who are shown to wisely tackle differences at work place. The film begins with a nicely shot sequence of a train driven by a steam engine. It is worth mentioning that the camera has been placed so meticulously that one could see the actual train chugging marvelously on the tracks. The film is replete with nicely shot scenes of this kind which capture each moment of what it is being in a situation related to trains.