Golden Duck

Lutek works with a stingy baker by the name of Skibka. One day Skibka sees Lutek give the homeless girl Emilka a roll. Enraged, he sends Lutek packing. Emilka and Lutek meet Mr. Franciszek, a Warsaw cab driver. When Mr. Franciszek learns of Lutek’s misfortune, he tells him about a lake in the cellars under the castle on Ordynacka Street, where a gold duck swims and gives a bag of gold ducats to whoever gets there at midnight.

Lutek decides to go to the castle. At the stroke of midnight the Gold Duck appears, gives him a bag of gold ducats, and vanishes. After he leaves the castle, Lutek looks for Emilka but all in vain. Błażej, a errand boy, tells him about a ruined bakery, which is for sale. Lutek buys the bakery and takes Blażej for an apprentice. Now day by day, Lutek walks the streets of Warsaw in search for Emilka. One day he notices a small girl shaking with cold, who is begging for help. Lutek gives her gold ducats and, to his great dismay, the girl turns out to be Emilka. Suddenly the Gold Duck appears. It turns into a beautiful girl, who tells them her story. Once, she was very rich and on a frosty winter evening turned away from her door a traveler, chilled to the bone. To punish her he cast a spell on her. Now she was to be a gold duck until the moment when someone whom she gives ducats will share them with others. Only Lutek did not spend everything on himself. So the spell is no more. Leaving them, the girl asks Lutel to distribute her riches among the poor. A cart full of sacks pulls up to the bakery. Lutek and Emilka do not see that Mr. Franciszek is the driver. When Lutek wants to take up some flour, the sacks turn out to be full of ducats. Come morning, customers come to the bakery and Lutek, Emilka, and Błażej put gold ducats in their shopping baskets.

Directed by Jacek Kasprzycki
Screenplay, dialogue by Aniela Lubieniecka
(based on the tale by Artur Oppman)
Artwork by Anna Dudek
Background by Anna Dudek, Katarzyna Mularczyk, Joanna Daszkiewicz
Music composed and performed by Arnold Dąbrowski
Animation by Elżbieta Kandziora, Maciej Matecki, Janusz Gałązkowski, Ewa Rodewald, Waldemar Szajkowski, Agnieszka Szcześniak, Edyta Mazurczuk, Anna Pawlak, Monika Tomaszkiewicz
Camera, editing by Krzysztof Napierała
Sound effects by Krzysztof Jankowski
Dubbing directed by Dorota Kawęcka
Sound by Wiesław Jurgała

Series title sequences by Robert Turło (directed, artwork, animation), Marek Kuczyński (music)
Series Production Managing by Mariola Feliszkowska
Series Editor by Katarzyna KOmorowska
Series Executive Producer by Ewa Sobolewska

Cartoon, Digital Betacam, 13:00′, colour, format 4:3.
Date of production: 29.11.2002, (C)  TVP S.A. Program 1 2002