On a film by Andrzej Sapija

This article presents the most important stages and areas of Tadeusz Kantor's output, as shown in 'Powrót Odysa II'. Tadeusza Kantora notatki z prób' (The Return of Odysseus, 2. Tadeusz Kantor's rehearsal notes), a documentary directed by Andrzej Sapija. The motif of a 'return of Odysseus', the principal category in Kantor's art, was employed as the film's structural skeleton. Once a real event, the production staged in 1944, when reduced to a few elements, often recalled as a reference and discussed at a length, had effectively been deformed. The article, in turn, becomes a commentary of a sort, exceeding the limits of the filmmaker's script. The trade mainly concerns the 'Powrót Odysa' production: for the author, the facts established with respect to the premiere version have become the basis for a critical analysis of Kantor's later utterances on the performance, including on a sequence repeated in his 'Nigdy tu juz nie powróce' (I shall never return here). The article follows the film's narrative, attempting at communicating the abundance of motifs touched upon by Sapija and taking into account the filmmaker's interpretation and precise composition of the material, as ensuing from the editing work and documents selected.