The Voice From The Outer World

Aksamitowski (Kazimierz Rudzki) earns the trust of numerous female patients, despite lacking a medical education and using methods that border on deception. He is supported by Wiktoria (Wanda Łuczycka), a former nurse who finds in his work a way to boost her own self-worth. The film reveals the psychological background of their actions: Aksamitowski, jealous of the successes of real doctors, wants to prove something both to himself and to his young mistress, while Wiktoria escapes from the humiliating role of a servant by presenting herself as a medium, even as a person marked by stigmata. Their victims — women of various ages — primarily yearn for understanding and closeness: Urszulka (Marta Lipińska), affected by the effects of Heine-Medin disease, suffers from loneliness; Stanisława (Danuta Szaflarska), who works as a switchboard operator, lives with memories of lost love; Rejentowa (Tatiana Czechowska) cannot come to terms with the death of her loved ones. The story is a socio-criminal narrative with a strong psychological dimension — at times dark, at times tender, occasionally even ironic — maintained in the tone characteristic of Stanisław Różewicz, marked by restraint and empathy. The screenplay draws from real events: the trial of a Kraków pseudo-medium active in the 1950s.