The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as the history of cinematography, and it has universally recognized achievements, even though Polish films tend to be less commercially available than films from several other European nations.
Andrzej Witold Wajda was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "Polish Film School". He was known especially for his trilogy of war films consisting of A Generation (1955), Kanał (1957) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958).
In common with other European countries, the most frequent and most popular form of theatre in Poland is dramatic theatre, based on the existence of stable artistic companies. It is above all a theatre of directors, who decide on the form of its productions and the appearance of individual scenes. There is no strict division in Poland between theatre and film directors and actors, therefore many stage artists are known to theatre goers from films of Andrzej Wajda, for example: Wojciech Pszoniak, Daniel Olbrychski, Krystyna Janda, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, and from films of Krzysztof Kieślowski, actors such as Jerzy Stuhr, Janusz Gajos and others.
Węgrów is a town in eastern Poland with 12,796 inhabitants (2013), capital of Węgrów County in the Masovian Voivodeship.
Tadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature.
Kanał is a 1957 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was the first film made about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, telling the story of a company of Home Army resistance fighters escaping the Nazi onslaught through the city's sewers. The film is adapted from the story “They Loved Life” by Jerzy Stefan Stawinski. Kanał is the second film of Wajda's War Trilogy, preceded by A Generation and followed by Ashes and Diamonds.
Daniel Marcel Olbrychski is a Polish film and theatre actor who is widely considered one of the greatest Polish actors of his generation. He appeared in 180 films and TV productions and is best known for leading roles in several Andrzej Wajda movies including The Promised Land and also known for playing a defector and spymaster Vassily Orlov alongside Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie in the movie Salt.
The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the novel of the same name by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th-century capitalism.
The Hourglass Sanatorium is a 1973 Polish surrealist film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, starring Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Mieczysław Voit, Halina Kowalska and Gustaw Holoubek. It is also known as The Sandglass in English-speaking countries. The story follows a young Jewish man who visits his father in a mystical sanatorium where time does not behave normally. The film is an adaptation of Bruno Schulz's story collection Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. It won the Jury Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, is a collection of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's concentration camp experience. The original title in the Polish language was Pożegnanie z Marią. Following two year imprisonment at Auschwitz, Borowski had been liberated from the Dachau concentration camp in the spring of 1945, and went on to write his collection in the following years in Stalinist Poland. The book, translated in 1959, was featured in the Penguin's series "Writers from the Other Europe" from the 1970s.
The Battle of Grunwald is a painting by Jan Matejko depicting the Battle of Grunwald and the victory of the allied Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania over the Teutonic Order in 1410. The canvas dates to 1878 and is one of the most heroic representations of the history of Poland and Lithuania. It is displayed in the National Museum in Warsaw.
Feliks Sypniewski (1830–1903) was a Polish painter and artist who painted mostly historic battle scenes drawn from the borderlands of Poland and Germany, and his most favourite animal - horses.
Leszek Melchior Drogosz was a Polish boxer and actor.
The Zamość uprising comprised World War II partisan operations, 1942–1944, by the Polish resistance against Germany's Generalplan-Ost forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region (Zamojszczyzna) and the region's colonization by German settlers.
Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray, also simply known as Sir Thaddeus, is a 1999 film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It is based on the 1834 eponymous epic poem by Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855). As in the poem, conflict between the Soplica and Horeszko families serves as a backdrop for discussion of issues of Polish national unity and the struggle for independence.
The outbreak of World War II in Europe completely changed the situation of Polish cultural and literary life. All institutions were liquidated by the Nazi and Soviet occupiers. Artists were forced to create in secrecy or in exile. Polish Literature during World War II suffered tremendous losses under the occupation; however, writers did continue to produce works both underground and abroad.
Battle of Warsaw 1920 is a Polish historical film directed by Jerzy Hoffman depicting the events of the Battle of Warsaw (1920) of the Polish–Soviet War. It was released in September 2011. It was filmed in 3D using the Fusion Camera System and is one of the most expensive movies in the history of cinema in Poland.
Platige Image S.A. is a Polish-based company specializing in the creation of computer graphics, 3D animation, and digital special effects for various fields, including advertising, film, art, education, and entertainment. The studio employs a team of over 320 artists, comprising directors, art directors, graphic designers, and producers. The company has won approximately 280 awards and honors. Its animated shorts have garnered top prizes at SIGGRAPH four times and earned two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards. Additionally, the studio has been nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Lions at the Venice Film Festival, as well as receiving an Oscar nomination.
Tadeusz Debski (1921–2011) was a Polish survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and the oldest person to receive a doctorate at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His thesis, "The Battlefield of Ideas: Nazi Concentration Camps and Their Polish Prisoners," was published in 2001 by East European Monographs and distributed by Columbia University Press. ISBN 0880334789
Andrzej Wajda was a Polish film and theatre director.
