Geniusze i marzyciele

Henryk Magnuski was an outstanding Polish scientist whose discoveries had a significant impact on the fate of World War II and thus the lives of millions of people. During World War II, he accidentally stays in the United States. There he began working on his most famous discoveries: a walkie-talkie radio station and a beacon that guided planes to airports. After the war, it was impossible to talk about someone working for the USA in Poland at all. Later, years later, when the political situation changed, Magnuski was forgotten.

A film portrait of a brilliant scientist and a great Polish patriot - chemist and metallurgist Jan Czochralski. His research and scientific work from the beginning of the 20th century laid the foundations for the modern electronics and photovoltaic industry based on single-crystalline semiconductors, which are manufactured using the Czochralski method - widely known in scientific circles around the world.

A historical documentary ballad, with the significant subtitle "Rebellious visionaries". Father Czeslaw and son Tadeusz devoted everything to their design passions and paid a high price for it. The film tells the story of the great friendship of two generations of geniuses who blazed trails in pioneering fields: father Czeslaw - the "Polish Icarus", created the first flying machines, and son Tadeusz - the first Polish passenger cars, the famous CWS. Together they tried to build the first Polish helicopter. They were accompanied, like all Poles after regaining independence in 1918, by great enthusiasm, faith and sincere devotion to the country. Tadeusz brought his knowledge and education straight from Paris, where he abandoned a brilliant career to serve a free country. Here he built the FT-B armored car, which supported the Polish victory in the Polish-Soviet War in 1920. Their passions and dreams were cut short by the tragedy of World War II almost at the same time. Son Tadeusz, a rebellious patriot, died in Auschwitz, and father Czeslaw died alone shortly after him. Forgotten for years, they were still a legend in narrow circles of specialists. Today, through film, the legend comes alive for everyone.

Born in Kraków, Józef Hofmann was the son of a conductor, pianist and composer, and a vaudeville singer. At the age of 11, he gave his first concert at Carnegie Hall. To this day, no other pianist has performed as many solo recitals in this New York concert hall as Hofmann. The little boy grew up to be an unrivaled interpreter of Chopin, a teacher, a composer, an avid motorist and a sportsman. Sergei Rachmaninov considered him the greatest pianist in the world. Extraordinary musical talent went hand in hand with technical talent. Hofmann patented over 70 inventions, mainly related to the construction of a piano and a car.

Physician, bacteriologist, founder of the Polish school of immunology. He introduced the determination of blood groups and the Rh factor, discovered the causes of serological conflict and developed the principles of blood transfusion. Ludwik Hirszfeld was born in Warsaw and studied medicine in Germany. His discoveries in the field of bacteriology and immunology have contributed and continue to contribute to saving millions of human lives around the world. During World War I, he fought the epidemic of typhus in Serbia, for which he received honorary citizenship from the king of that country. He developed the division of blood into groups (O, A, B, AB), determined the Rh factor and discovered the rules of its inheritance. He explained the causes of serological conflict between mother and fetus, for which he was nominated for the Nobel Prize. During World War II, he treated typhus patients in the Warsaw ghetto.

The illegitimate son of the daughter of farmers from near Krosno was later called the "Polish Edison" or "Leonard da Vinci from Galicia". He was the first person to translate an optical image into small fragments comparable to today's pixels. This allowed it to be copied perfectly onto another medium. He made his first prints on fabric. Szczepanik was also the first person to send a primitive image remotely via a telephone line. He also patented a film recording and playback system based on three primary colors: red, green and blue (RGB). His friend Mark Twain devoted two stories to him. In one he described the television prototype he had invented. In cooperation with two other inventors, Mikolaj Reisser and Kazimierz Zeglen, he invented a silk fabric that was able to stop bullets from a gun. Thanks to it, in 1902 he created the first bulletproof vest made entirely of fabric. Similar material was then used to brake space shuttles.

Kazimierz Prószynski grew up in an intelligentsia family with strong patriotic traditions. As a thirteen-year-old, together with his friend Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, later a composer, he organized performances using mirrors and dim lamps. During his first year of studies in Belgium, he constructed a camera for photos and film projections, which he called a pleograph. He also developed many other cinematographic cameras and film cameras. He invented a system for moving the photosensitive tape, which revolutionized the recording of moving images and the film industry. He recorded the coronation of King George V in London with the first hand-held film camera with image stabilization (aeroscope), which he constructed himself. During the occupation, he took up conspiratorial activities. During the Warsaw Uprising he was arrested by the Gestapo. He died at the age of 70 in the Mauthausen-Gusen camp.

Born out of wedlock and raised in a foster family, Stefan Banach showed outstanding mathematical abilities from an early age. A chance meeting in the Planty Park in Krakow with Dr. Hugo Steinhaus resulted in Banach's assistantship at the Department of Mathematics at the Lviv University of Technology. Without yet having completed his studies, he obtained his doctorate at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. His discoveries had and still have a major impact on scientific research and applications in industry, medicine and the digitalization of the modern world, including: computed tomography, luggage x-ray and computer simulations used in aviation.

Film, among others about Zygmunt Pulawski. Outstanding aviation experts talk about the life of the romantic designer and his achievements. Among them were: Jacek Mainka - pilot and collector of historical aircraft, Krzysztof Mroczkowski - scientific director of the Polish Aviation Museum, Rafal Ladzinski - grandson of a mechanic from Squadron 303, originator of the modern Polish business and family jet "Flaris". " and its designer, engineer Andrzej Frydrychewicz. In search of Pulawski's traces, the authors went to southern Europe, where aviation historians Dan Antoniu from Romania and Tassos Katsikas from Greece told them about the Pole's work. The originator of the "Pulawski airfoil" was also the creator of the first Polish fighter PZL P-1. Unfortunately, at the age of 30, he died in a crash during a test flight in an amphibious plane of his own design.

The dramatic fate of Antoni Kocjan, the most outstanding Polish pre-war glider designer, creator of the legendary Orlik and Bak. A quiet, modest, brilliant autodidact whose war transforms him into a fearless intelligence officer of the Home Army. Commanding air intelligence, he contributed to the bombing of the secret Peenemunde missile base, which thwarted Hitler's plans to win the war with Weapon V and enabled the Allies to land in Normandy. After years of daring work in the underground, he does not finish his mission with the V-2 rocket captured by the Poles, sent to London. Due to the mistakes of others, he is arrested and tortured to death in the Gestapo in Szucha Street.

Construction engineer, pioneer of welding and welded structures. His innovative ideas used in the construction of bridges still delight engineers from all over the world. He helped design the Prudential, the second tallest building in Europe in the 1920s. In Maurzyce near Lowicz there is the world's oldest welded bridge designed by him. Stefan Bryla was a member of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic, and during World War II, dean of the secret Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. Involved in the resistance movement, he prepared instructions for the Kedyw Home Army "How to destroy steel bridges". Arrested by the Germans, he was shot in 1943.