Hospital of the Transfiguration (1979): Cast & Plot

Late in 1939, a young doctor Stefan arrives at a closed psychiatric hospital to take up a post, carrying humanitarian impulses that are admirable but not fully formed. He is welcomed by the hospital director, and quickly comes under the scrutiny of the cynical Dr. Rygier Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, whose pro-Nazi views are not concealed. Stefan disapproves of Rygier’s humiliating and sometimes brutal experimental methods, including electroconvulsive therapy. The doctor also witnesses a disturbing mix of approaches among his colleagues: Dr. Kauters [Henryk Bista] favors only surgical remedies, while Dr. Marglewski [Wojciech Pszoniak] treats mental illness as if it were mere possession. The atmosphere is tense, clinical, and morally fraught, as lives hang in the balance between science, power, and mercy.