How I Unleashed World War II, Part I: The Escape

On the night of 31 August 1939, Franciszek Dolas, from a platoon reinforcing a railway station on the German border, falls asleep in a carriage and crosses into Germany without knowing it. When he wakes he fires at a German he takes for a saboteur. At the same moment the German invasion of Poland begins, and Dolas becomes convinced beyond doubt that it was his fault. He is taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, and his journey around Europe starts there. Tadeusz Chmielewski's film is the first of three. The narrative builds the war not through heroism but through the comedy of an ordinary man who believes himself responsible for world history. Every escape drops Dolas into a bigger mess, and his effort to clear his name is what drives the story. Marian Kociniak plays Dolas, in a role that stuck in Polish popular culture; lines from the film are still in circulation. Who it's for: Viewers who like Polish comedy, war satire, and picaresque narratives. Who it's not for: The part does not conclude on its own; the other two films are needed to finish the story. Some of the jokes are also tied to the language of the period.