Biały ślad (The White Trail) was directed, edited, and produced by Adam Krzeptowski (1898-1961). It was basically an amateur film. Krzeptowski was a skier, instructor, sports referee, and also a sports press correspondent. In the mid-1920s he opened a photographic studio, and in the early 1930s became interested in cinematography. From 1930 onwards he made short documentary films showing the beauty of the Tatra Mountains and Zakopane’s surroundings, and in the same period he worked on the production of Biały ślad.
The plot revolves around a love triangle involving Jasiek, a young mountaineer; the girl Hanka, his friend from childhood; and Andrzej, the man she loves. One day, faced with the prospect of rescuing his rival from mortal danger, Jaseik has to decide between human nature and his wounded heart.
It took Krzeptowski two years to complete the movie, an extremely long period by the standards of the Polish film industry at the time, when films were made quickly and hurriedly. Many months were spent shooting outdoors. The weather in the Tatra Mountains was (and still is today) very unpredictable and changeable; anyone who has ever tried to film there knows that one has to wait many hours, sometimes even many days, for the right sunlight to produce the desired effect. Krzeptowski shot in difficult conditions, high among rocks and on snowy slopes, using a simple hand-held camera. He observed wild mountain animals, but most of all his lens captured the wonderful chiaroscuro of nature bathed in sparkling snow.
Biały ślad was a quite unique case in Polish film production at the time, which was usually focused on the names of famous actors. No professional actor appears in this production; most of the cast were athletes from Zakopane, associated with local sports clubs. The three main roles were played by Janina Fischer (a cross-country skier, the winner of 6th place at the FIS World Championships in 1929), Stanisław Gąsienica-Sieczka (one of the first Polish ski-jumpers, he broke his last Polish record in 1929 with a result of 66 metres), and Andrzej Krzeptowski (a cross-country skier and the brother of director Adam Krzeptowski). Bronisława Staszel-Polankówna (European skiing champion at FIS 1929) and Bronisław Czech (a multiple-time Polish champion in skiing and jumping) made cameo appearances in the film.
Generally, the entire production of Biały ślad was unusual from beginning to end. The film was made by amateurs, at their own expense, without any financial support from film companies, without studios, and without any big celebrities. Only the post-production work and sound effects were made possible thanks to a professional studio, Asterfilm, in Warsaw.
In 1932 sound cinema in Poland was just developing (the first Polish sound film was made in 1930), and the necessary technology was not really available to amateurs. Biały ślad was thus made following silent film conventions, particularly with dialogue and narration in the form of intertitles, with a soundtrack used only as musical illustration. The added soundtrack helped the film a lot (the music by Zakopane-based composer Adam Noworyta emphasized the moods of the film very well), but in terms of the actual picture quality, the soundtrack harmed it: all the shots were made in full-frame format, and adding the soundtrack forced the loss of the left-hand part of the picture (cropping to 1.18:1 aspect ratio), which seriously affected the careful and thoughtful composition of the images.
The Polish premiere took place on 10 December 1932, at the Colosseum, Warsaw’s largest cinema. The film received enthusiastic but ambiguous reviews. The shallow plot, direction, acting, and the excess of superfluous titles drew criticism, but the cinematography, especially that of the natural scenery and the winter sports scenes, was unanimously admired, and most reviewers saw in Biały ślad a harbinger of change in Polish cinema. Indeed, no other Polish filmmaker had ever captured such beautiful mountain images. In later years some fragments of Biały ślad were used in other films: for example, the descent of the avalanche appeared in the 1938 drama Druga Młodość (A Second Youth), and the skiing scenes can be seen in the 1939 comedy Sportowiec Mimo Woli (The Accidental Sportsman). Adam Krzeptowski worked as a cinematographer on several other films. However, his biggest success was the 1934 short Wiosna narciarzy (Spring of the Skiers).

Venice 1932  Even before the film was released in Poland, it was presented at the first Venice International Film Exhibition on the 12th evening, Wednesday 17 August. Its reception was quite mixed. Some reviewers claimed that the amateur filmmaker had taken on a challenge beyond his strength and failed, and that it would have been better to choose another Polish film by a leading director. Others appreciated the cinematography and the beauty of the folklore presented in the film. The fact that Biały ślad represented Poland in Venice (which was widely reported in the Polish press) sparked a lot of interest at home.

Michał Pieńkowski