A full house at Čas Cinema attended the screening of Trains, a unique documentary that, without a single word of spoken dialogue and composed entirely of archival footage, offers a subtle reflection on collective memory and the war-torn history of the 20th century – all through the lens of changing train transport and its passengers. Director Maciej J. Drygas, joined by his producer and wife Vita Żelakeviciute, spoke about the demanding ten-year process behind the film.
“The film is made entirely of archival material. I collected footage from archives all over the world. But first, I spent a year and a half searching for texts people had written on trains — letters, diaries, even official documents. That became my imaginary libretto. But when we finally sat down in the editing room after thousands of hours of research, I thought maybe it would be better to make the film without any text. We asked ourselves if it was even possible. And it turned out to be the right decision,” the director clarified, after which he asked the audience if they recognised the footage related to the Czech Republic. Several audience members quickly responded. Drygas then revealed that scenes of Czech soldiers on trains – sourced from educational documentaries – became some of the film’s most important material. Aesthetically they reminded him of Visconti’s films.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, Drygas cut ties with Russian and Belarusian archives. Still, he wanted to represent the Soviet world and turned to American archives, where he found symbolic footage of people carrying large portraits of Stalin. “When we had the final cut and I saw the film on the big screen, I didn’t like the last ten minutes,” he admitted. “We re-edited those last minutes 35 times before I was finally satisfied. I have a very patient producer,” he joked, answering the frequently asked question of why his films take so long to complete. “The structure of my films is opened to everyone. I tried to imagine where railway tracks might take humanity in the future. But humanity is unteachable – the narrative keeps repeating itself. We have a terrible history,” he concluded when asked what he hopes audiences will take away from Trains.
