Entrance area of U.S.Steel Košice in the film Výhybka

The film Výhybka was directed by Ján Lacko from a story and screenplay by Ľudovít Filan. The film was produced in 1963 in Czechoslovakia. The main and minor roles are played by Július Pántik, Ladislav Chudík, Ivan Rajniak, Ctibor Filčík, Viliam Polónyi, Dušan Blaškovič, Vlado Müller, Jozef Dóczy, Marie Tomášová, Igor Čilík, Ľudovít Greššo, and others. The film is also set in the current U.S. Steel Košice campus in the time sequence of first minute.

Výhybka, a 1963 film by Ján Lacko, is a political drama and the story of two friends, the deputy director Dudek (Július Pántik) and the political officer Ferenčík (Ladislav Chudík). After many years of not seeing each other, their paths were joined by their work duties. The two men's differing attitudes to their mistakes and missteps are dramatized against the backdrop of the large-scale construction of an industrial plant. The latter is the perfect place to further show what kind of people they really are.

A crucial point of interest in The Switch is the fact that the construction of one of Eastern Slovakia's most important enterprises was heavily used in the making of the film. The construction of the ironworks began in 1960 and, as an extremely large project that already required many construction, industrial, and professional disciplines at the same time, it progressed in several stages. The first one was completed with the closing of the entire metallurgical cycle in 1966, although the first iron was smelted at the plant on 2nd of June 1965. The film Switch is one of the works charged to the times. However, with a production year of 1963, it gives us a valuable insight into the construction process. The extensive construction site of what was at that time already a major industrial location impressed the filmmakers as an excellent filming location. They simply incorporated shots of the construction bustle into the screenplay. However, it was the equipment, architecture, and technology, which were unprecedented in Slovakia until then. And all these elements were spread over vast hectares of land. From the opening credits, the film offers a repeated view of the construction site, as well as objects in the process of being moved, prepared, or those in use. Another of the locations used were the sites in the cities of Šaľa, Trenčín, and Galanta. The USS site was also used in the 1974 film The Fiery Crossroads by director Miroslav Horňák.

Source
Tomáš Galierik