Man - Woman Wanted

Man - Woman Wanted (original title Poszukiwany, poszukiwana), directed by Stanisław Bareja and co-written with Jacek Fedorowicz, opened on April 22, 1973, as a Polish comedy about a low paid museum worker in Warsaw named Stanisław, who, accused of stealing a painting and unable to prove his innocence, disguises himself as "Maria" by wearing his wife's clothes to hide. The gender disguise theme predates Sidney Pollack's 1982 Tootsie by nearly a decade. The film drew roughly 2 million admissions and 13 million zloty in gross within a year, a major audience success in communist Poland, and is recognized as a satire of bureaucratic absurdity under the regime. Who it's for: anyone curious about a cult comedy that worked the same gender disguise premise nearly a decade before a Hollywood classic (Tootsie), satirizing communist Poland's bureaucracy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a direct imitation or adaptation of Tootsie, since this is an independent Polish work, not derivative of it.