Train to Zakopane

Train to Zakopané is true love story that lays bare how compassion and intolerance can, even in the most unusual of circumstances, be one. Written, directed and adapted from his long-running play by Henry Jaglom and adapted for film together with producer-editor Ron Vignone, the film reveals humanity in the most unlikely of places—prejudice. The film is based on true events that occurred in the life of Henry Jaglom’s father as he crossed Poland on a train in 1928. Anti-Semitism was, at that time, rife in much of Europe, especially in Poland. In Train to Zakopané, a successful young Russian businessman meets a captivating nurse in the Polish army on a train-trip to Warsaw and is faced with a life-changing dilemma when he discovers that the nurse he is drawn to—and who is enchanted by him—is fiercely anti-Semitic. Will he reveal to her he is Jewish? Will he move toward love, or will he move toward revenge? The actual train-ride across Poland—and the weekend stopover in the resort town of Zakopané that followed—haunted Henry Jaglom’s father for a lifetime.

"Henry Jaglom’s gem of a movie, Train to Zakopané, is really extraordinary. Beautifully shot in rich black and white, it has a dead-on script and many wonderful performances, including a stand-out turn by the terrific Tanna Frederick. This film is ravishing to look at, at once a love story of its time and also, disturbingly, very much a parable of our current moment as well. More timely than ever, it is also an affectionate homage to Jaglom's father, whose vivid recollection of a truly complex romantic encounter on a train crossing Poland in the 1920s is the moving basis for this remarkable work." — Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders. Raging Bulls & My Lunches With Orson.