Michał Gajewski

Portrait of the legendary Tatra Mountains mountain rescuer Joseph Uznański. Great athlete, skier and soldier repressed by the communist authorities. Brave man in the mountains, lead the first dog guided avalanche rescue team, taking part in more than 300 rescue expeditions in the Tatras, including a number of the most difficult climber rescues in the largest Tatra walls. Excellent instructor, tutor of many generations of mountain rescuers, simply Ukel. With his extremely modest and open-minded personality, he was a great companinon not only in the mountains.

This movie puts into a nutshell the history of one of the most elite and legendary rescue organizations in Poland, officially founded in 1909. With a ride to the peak of Kasprowy Wierch inside a cable railway car we begin our picturesque travel, which takes us both through the Tatra Mountains and the history of TOPR (Tatra Mountain Rescue Service).

A film crew participates in a mountain rescue on the wall of Kazalnica in the High Tatras, carried out by the GOPR (Tatra Mountain Rescue Group) in February 1972. During the filming, one of the rescuers, Franciszek Spytka, was buried by an avalanche. Fortunately, he could be rescued. Directed by Jerzy Surdel, this is the third film of the Trypyk Górski trilogy. The second film of the series, Odwrot, was originally presented at the Trento festival in 1969, where it won the best short film award; 37 years later, it was also awarded at the Banff festival.