Trains

Awarded as the Best Film at the IDFA Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, Maciej J. Drygas’s Trains is composed of found footage of people traveling on steam trains during the first half of the 20th century. Built entirely from archival film, the documentary uses its narrowly focused subject matter to evoke the unrest of the interwar period as well as a wide range of human emotions and experiences.

These steam trains, accelerating toward progress, carry both the glamour of fashion shows and restaurant dinners, and the sorrow of loss, longing, and grief. On board are vacationers casually playing cards, as well as wounded war veterans. Accompanied by hissing steam pipes, screeching rails, and the rhythmic clatter of a moving train, the film immerses the viewer in its sonic landscape.

The historical imagery resonates with today’s increasingly militarised atmosphere, offering unexpected points of identification between past and present.

Nadiye Koçak

Read more: [interview with director Maciej J. Dygas](https://festival.idfa.nl/en/news/tracks-of-history-an-interview-with-the-filmmaker-behind-trains)