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The story presented in the film is apparently related to true events. With the Soviet Army stationed in Poland, innocent people are imprisoned by local party bosses. Military physician with the rank of captain puts on the uniform of a colonel of the communist equivalent of the Military Police. He, his neighbor Krysia (a nickname for Krystyna) and sergeant Dudek similarly dressed as a MP lieutenant visit various cities as inspectors to see how the political prisoners are treated. In Warsaw they would be recognized for what they are, but in some other cities they succeed in liberating a number of innocent people as not dangerous to the socialist regime. Given the subject, this is not a comedy, but it has a number of comedy-like sequences.

Marek Kondrat as the false colonel, Renata Dancewicz as Krysia and Zbigniew Zamachowski as the false lieutenant are all outstanding actors and play very convincingly. See this film if you can.

The title of the book and film in English is: The miniature that disappeared.

Erich Kästner wrote the book before World War II when he lived in Berlin. He wrote the script for the film after WWII when he lived in Munich. In the book the heroes travel from Copenhagen to Berlin where they all live. Writing the script, Kästner did not want his heroes to travel through the so-called German Democratic Republic. Therefore, in the film the heroes go from Copenhagen to their homes in Hanover.

Paola Loew is wonderful as Irene Trübner ! Ralph Lothar as the false Rudi Struve, Paul Westermeier as 'Papa' Külz, and Heini Göbel as the real Rudi Struve play very well too - while the real Rudi shows up only in the final part of the film. Actors playing the criminals are convincing as well.

There are films which age with time; this one does not and will not.

Given the ubiquity of English, it would be good if somebody would provide for the world public a version of this film with subtitles in English.

This is a wonderful film. In most films we see large numbers of people meeting and interacting. Here only a small number of people is needed to tell us an unusual story - in which feelings are important much more than the surroundings. We learn about these feelings from dialogs. The last part of the film when the main heroine considers making a life changing decision is enchanting. Irina Tarannik is wonderful as Olga and so is Artyom Tkachenko as Denis.