Men of the Blue Cross

Men of the Blue Cross (Polish: Błękitny krzyż) is a Polish war narrative-documentary film from 1955 directed by Andrzej Munk, based on Adam Liberak's short story Journey for Life.^[1] The film reconstructs the authentic action of the Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue, which in February 1945 evacuated a partisan mountain hospital through the German-Soviet front line during World War II. In the Men of the Blue Cross, narrated by Gustaw Holoubek, some of the participants of that action appeared, including Stanisław Gąsienica Byrcyn and Stanisław Marusarz.

Men of the Blue Cross served as a bridge for Munk between his previous documentary work and later achievements in narrative filmmaking. However, the experiment of combining two types of film did not appeal to the contemporary film critics, who criticized Munk for indecisiveness regarding the adopted convention. Only years later was the Men of the Blue Cross partially rehabilitated, largely due to the presence of non-professional actors and the cinematography of Sergiusz Sprudin [pl].