Vabank 1981

In October 1934, a famed Warsaw safe cracker and jazz trumpeter, Henryk Kwinto, Janusz Machulski is released after six years behind bars. He returns to a world that has quietly moved on: his wife has taken a new suitor, a sharp-eyed police commissioner, who has become the man she leans on. Kwinto quietly pockets a hidden roll of banknotes from the chair’s leg, places his apartment key on the table, and steps back into the street with a calm resolve. He’s a man who knows the rhythm of risk and the taste of a life on the edge, and his first instinct is to measure the distance between old loyalties and new opportunities.

Near the city gates, he crosses paths with two younger petty criminals, the brothers Moks and Nuta, who have just pulled off a jewel robbery and are eager to bring the legendary safe-cracker into their fold. Moks (Jacek Chmielnik) wears a grin that matches the swagger in his steps, while Nuta remains more cautious. Kwinto pretends to be someone else—a musician—taking out a mouthpiece of his trumpet to show he’s still Mr. Musician. The brothers, momentarily unsure, still offer him a lane to their automobile shop, should the “Musician” want to join their act.

That invitation leads him to meeting with his old ally turned banker, Gustaw Kramer, a man who knows he once betrayed Kwinto but now tries to buy back his own safety by offering a substantial payment as compensation for moral damages. Kramer, played by Leonard Pietraszak, reminds Kwinto that the past cannot simply be erased; he once enticed the police to trap the thief, and now he believes in the inviolability of his own bank. Kramer offers 45,000 złoty to seal the score, a sum Kwinto keeps close in his memories as a kind of test of character and power. Their exchange makes one thing clear: Kwinto will not let himself be merely a man out of time.

Meanwhile, Marta Rychlińska, Ewa Szykulska, the widow of Kwinto’s late associate Tadeusz, shares a stubborn, aching memory. Tadeusz had deposited his savings in Kramer’s bank but died under suspicious circumstances after the thief’s receipt vanished. Marta’s gift to Kwinto—a trumpet mouthpiece containing a note from Tadeusz—becomes the spark that convinces him: Kramer engineered the death and the disappearance of the deposit, and the road to retribution must be paved with careful, patient planning.

Kwinto traces the thread of conspiracy to its source, uncovering a perilous truth: the crime was staged to disguise a bank heist, and a quiet war has begun between him and the banker. With this revelation, Kwinto resolves to strike back in a way only he can. The plan requires old comrades and a willingness to risk everything for a sense of justice that has long eluded him.

To turn the plan into reality, Kwinto turns to his old circle and enlists help from a diverse cast of players. He reconnects with his old partner in risk, a craftsman named Duńczyk, once a friend who has chosen peace over crime. Witold Pyrkosz embodies Duńczyk, a man who must choose between a quiet life and a chance to stand for something he believes in. Kwinto’s reconnaissance leads to a deeper dive into the bank’s defenses: the group studies the alarm system, the layout of the building, and the way the bank’s vault could be breached.

The crew begins to assemble the elements of a daring operation. Kwinto and Duńczyk discuss how to test the alarm, how to map the safest paths through the building, and how to exploit a moment of routine to their advantage. A key insight comes from a necklace that once guarded a cherished keepsake; the group discovers a plate that can block the alarm when used correctly. The plan hinges on timing: prove to Kramer that he’s been outwitted by Kwinto’s artistry, and force the bank’s security system into a state of compromised certainty.

As the plan comes together, the team tightens its weave. The group infiltrates Kramer’s world in stages: a visit to Natalia, the young woman Kwinto encounters during a chance meeting with Kramer, is the first step toward gaining access. Natalia, played by Elżbieta Zającówna, becomes a focal point through which the plan moves closer to its final act. The plot thickens as the group begins to act in earnest: Moks and the others infiltrate Kramer’s domain by testing the bank’s defenses and by manipulating appearances, all while Kwinto keeps the police at bay with the same cool precision that has defined his career.

The actual heist unfolds with the precision of a well-rehearsed play. Kwinto and his allies enter the bank through a restaurant’s ventilation shaft, disable the alarms with the special necklace plate, and crack the safe using a thermal lance. They retrieve the money and valuables, staging a flawless retreat while the owner is absent from the scene. The loot is divided among the conspirators, and the group even sends a portion of the proceeds to Marta, as a gesture of atonement to the family of the victim of the bank’s machinations.

But the investigation soon closes in. The head investigator, Commissioner Przygoda (Józef Para), and other police officers piece together that the safe was opened by ordinary means, with fingerprints pointing toward Kramer. The authorities search Kramer’s home and find the stolen goods stored away in laundry baskets, confirming the banker’s involvement. Kramer attempts to salvage his name with an alibi, but the trail returns to Natalia’s apartment and the mysterious man with a dog. The arrest comes, and in a final, pointed moment of reckoning, Kwinto—who has watched everything unfold—reads Kramer’s astonishment from across the street and taps his own ear, reminding him of the phrase that had once defined the banker’s arrogance: > “ucho od śledzia” (ear of a herring).

As the story closes, the consequence of the deed lingers in the air, and the film hints at a future chapter in which Kwinto’s legend would continue in Vabank II, released in 1984.

Kwinto’s world remains a delicate balance of risk, loyalty, memory, and a longing for justice that refuses to fade. The cat-and-mouse game—between a veteran thief who can outthink a banker and a city that never forgets—creates a narrative that feels both thrilling and morally textured, anchored by a cast of vivid characters whose fates intertwine with Kwinto’s daring plan.