Respect: Wojciech Smarzowski

Wojciech Smarzowski is one of the most interesting and important contemporary Polish film, television and theatre authors. 

After his studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków (film science) and the Natio- nal Film, Television and Theater School in Lodz (direction of photography), he started working first as a camera operator, later as a screenwriter and director and he works as intensively in film production as in television (he has filmed several TV movies and series). 

Smarzowski makes films that accurately and relentlessly hit the neuralgic points of the history and the present of the Polish society; his films provoke excited applause as well as storms of discontent. The topics of his works draw from the past (martial law in Poland in 1982—The Dark House, expulsion of Germans after the Second World War—Rose, massacres of the Polish by Ukrainians in 1943–1944—Hatred), © Jacek Grygała 

but he portrays, in an equally controversial manner, the phenomena of the Polish present (the mentality of modern society controlled by money—The Wedding, alcoholism—The Mighty Angel) and institutions (the police—Traffic Department, the church—Clergy). Smarzowski’s films arouse intense responses both in profes- sional circles, as evidenced by numerous awards, which they regularly receive from local festivals (Polish Film Festival in Gdansk, Polish Film Awards), as well as from the audiences (very good commercial success of films Hatred and especially Clergy, which only in the first weekend was seen in Poland by more than 925 000 viewers). Smarzowski himself says that he pays only little attention to how current the topics he chooses are in the society, he is much more interested in characters themselves, their fates (for example, according to him, the film Clergy is mainly about the por- trayal of three different characters as real people with their sins and weaknesses; in case of the film Rose, it is a love story in a war-torn country; Hatred is a film about hatred, which in fact has no national boundaries). That is one of the reasons why his inherently Polish films are interesting for viewers in other countries. 

In the section Respect, we will show in chronological order all seven films that Smarzowski made for cinemas and so we will give our viewers a unique opportu- nity to watch the continuity and development of his artistic work. 

This year, our Respect belongs to the Polish director Wojciech Smarzowski , for his uncompromising courage and artistic sovereignty.