Przekladaniec (1968)

Original title

Przekładaniec

Directed by

Andrzej Wajda

Genre

comedy film

Country

Poland

Runtime

35 min

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 18 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A short science fiction comedy from 1968. It follows a man whose body is made up of many transplanted organs. This raises questions about his legal identity and who has rights over his body.

satiricalabsurdplayfulthought-provokingfast-pacedwrylightheartedquirky

What happens

Przekładaniec is a 1968 short science fiction comedy film directed by Andrzej Wajda based on the screenplay by Stanisław Lem, which was a loose adaptation of Lem's 1955 short story turned into a radio play Czy pan istnieje, Mr. Johns? (translated into English as Are you there, Mr. Jones?). The title of the film was variously translated into English as Layer Cake (literal meaning), Hodge Podge, or Roly Poly. The first print of Lem's short story was in Przekrój in 1955. Translated as Are you there, Mr. Jones?, it appeared in a British-Australian science fiction magazine Vision of Tomorrow in 1969. According to the introduction to the story in the magazine, it was the first work of Lem translated into English. The central idea of the film concerns the problems related to organ transplantation, namely, what is the legal identity (and the associated legal rights) of a person whose body includes many transplants and that of a person whose body was used for many transplants? The film is a rare example when Lem was pleased with an adaptation of his work. Lem wrote that Wajda's film was the only adaptation of his works which had satisfied him (Lem) completely. Lem even confessed that he had found the course of the events in the film to make more sense than in the short story. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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