'Znachor': When a Man Loses His Memory

binczycki_jerzy_fototeka_2.jpg, default, 'Znachor': When a Man Loses His Memory, Jerzy Bińczycki in the film 'Znachor' directed by Jerzy Hoffman, 1981, photo: Roman Sumik/National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute/www.fototeka.f, center, #000000

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'Znachor' (The Quack) was published by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz in 1937. The classic Polish novel, which has had three Polish film adaptations but has not yet been translated into English, tells the story of Professor Rafał Wilczur, who develops amnesia and subsequently loses his identity. But he regains his memory when treating rural patients. Professor Wilczur’s memory retention reminds readers to help the disadvantaged, while 'The Quack' also tells a story about how each of us can have multiple important layers of our identity.

A Botched Date

The novel starts with Professor Wilczur, a renowned surgeon, finishing a successful operation on a patient. He is running late to his eight-year anniversary dinner with his wife. When he returns home, he sees that nothing is left over from his marriage: his wife Beata and his daughter Mariola are gone. Beata has left him to start a new family with another man named Janek.

Professor Wilczur encounters an unhospitable situation. The heartbroken surgeon ends up in a bar trying to drink away his problems. One of the professor’s new drinking buddies notices that he is rich and convinces Professor Wilczur to follow him. An ambush leads to Professor Wilczur being robbed and knocked unconscious.

Lost Identity

There is no cure for the doctor. The story resumes approximately two decades since Professor Wilczur’s disappearance. His memory is gone, and his beard has grown out. He is far from his Warsaw home. The rural police questions Professor Wilczur after he is hired for a sawmill job but possesses no paperwork verifying his identity. But Professor Wilczur does not know who he is or where he comes from: he is sent to appear before a judge. He is told to wait in an administrative office. There he notices paperwork lying around. He looks and finds what he wanted. Professor Wilczur becomes a fifty-two-year-old man named Antoni Kosiba.

Growing Experience

Cover of the book 'Znachor', author: Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz, 1938, photo: Polona National Library

Professor Wilczur – now Antoni Kosiba – finds stable employment when he meets Prokop Mielnik, the owner of a watermill. Antoni has no experience working in a watermill and comes carrying a knot on a stick. Yet the homeless man’s work ethic has a strong foundation. Prokop Mielnik hires him and allows him to live with his family.

Prokop’s youngest son Wasil starts a memory breakthrough for Antoni. Wasil is depressed since his doctor told him that he could never walk again. Antoni doubts the doctor’s diagnosis and tells Wasil that the doctor set his legs in the wrong way. Antoni tells Wasil that he can restore his physical mobility by breaking Wasil’s legs again and correctly repositioning them. Wasil agrees to the operation after reassurance from Antoni that he has previously done that type of operation.

Wasil’s mobility and Antoni’s medical knowledge are restored. Antoni’s legend grows, as he is a common man who can prophetically cure people. People who come to visit Antoni refer to him as the quack, and the quack who wandered the universe treats people for free. Yet Antoni is not a con artist. He is an honest doctor and never promises the impossible; in his care a patient never dies, their condition never worsens.

An Unhealthy Dose of Skepticism

Wasil’s original doctor, Pawlicki, hates Antoni. He is doubtful that an uneducated individual can heal people, and he is astonished that a doctor would not charge their patients. Doctor Pawlicki visits Antoni and opposes his unsanitary working conditions. But Pawlicki’s dislike would not dissuade people from following the quack.

His daughter Marysia (Janek's new name for her) is taken with her fiancé Leszek to Antoni for treatment after the couple suffers injuries in a motorcycle accident. Antoni successfully operates on Leszek, saving his life. Marysia, however, still requires surgery for head trauma, and Doctor Pawlicki is sent to help. Unfortunately, Doctor Pawlicki believes that Marysia will die soon and refuses to operate on her.

A Truthful Transplant

anna dymna role filmowe 10_6118941.jpg — A still from the film 'The Quack' directed by Jerzy Hoffman, 1981. In the photo: Anna Dymna and Jerzy Bińczycki., photo: Roman Sumik/Filmoteka Narodowa – Audiovisual Institute/www.fototeka.fn.org.pl

Antoni steals Doctor Pawlicki’s instruments and operates on Marysia. While observing Marysia, Antoni starts to recover his own memory. He remembers the name of his wife; his daughter awakes from her coma.

More trials are underway for Antoni, who is arrested for stealing Doctor Pawlicki’s surgical instruments. His trial is not about stealing Doctor Pawlicki’s surgical instruments, which he later returned, it is really about him stealing the spotlight from other doctors. Antoni is found guilty. Fortunately, he receives an appeal hearing.

A Conscience Case

Antoni’s lawyer sums up Antoni’s defense. He says (in my translation):

But if the prosecutor sees sin and fault in this, that Antoni Kosiba, not possessing a diploma, dared to rescue others. If he had jumped in the water to rescue the drowning, would he have to possess a certificate showing the completion of swimming school...?

The retrial finds Antoni not guilty. Marysia plans on visiting her mother’s grave with Leszek before their wedding. Her father and mother are both deceased before she first meets Antoni. Leszek suggests Antoni join them on their visit, and Antoni decides to go along. The sight of Beata’s headstone brings Professor Wilczur back to life. He has not only found his lost daughter along the way, but he also found those lost patients in rural communities who were in desperate need of medical treatment. The same is true for Znachor readers. While Professor Wilczur enters the novel with experience, he lacks the compassion Antoni finds in his new and unschooled identity, which the novel demonstrates matters most in the end.

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