Olaf Lubaszenko Movies
In this ironic Polish seriocomedy, Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko), a young shy postal worker, worships Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska) from afar -- literally, peering at her through spyglasses. She shatters his illusions about pure, ideal love by stating matter-of-factly that she believes only in sex. Despondent, he tries to forget her, and when this fails, he attempts to kill himself. Upon recovering from his botched suicide, Tomek is amazed to learn that Magda has become hopelessly infatuated with him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olaf Lubaszenko, Grazyna Szapolowska, (more)
The horrors of the Jewish Holocaust are revisited in this drama by Czech director Matej Minac. The film opens with the upwardly mobile Silberstein clan led by Jakub (Josef Abrham), as he buys a villa in the countryside just before Hitler overruns the country. His blind faith in family unity ironically keeps a number of his relatives in the country to be victimized by the Nazis. Meanwhile, British humanitarian Nicholas Winton (Rupert Graves) tries to rescue hundreds of Czech children and get them out of the country. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josef Abrhám, Jiri Bartoska, (more)
- 1999
Veteran Hungarian director Marta Meszaros has added a sexual subtext to her traditional feminist-oriented themes in this erotically charged drama about Russian women working as prostitutes in Poland. Olga Drozdowa stars as Natasha, a Russian schoolteacher and mother who decides to tag along when her best friend Vera (Ewa Telega) takes a vacation in Warsaw which would enable them to sell goods on the black market. When Natashia and Vera arrive in Warsaw, things quickly take a turn for the worst -- they make very little money, Vera is killed, and the floating hotel where Natasha was staying literally drifts away. A local ne'er-do-well named Janek (Olaf Lubashenko) offers to "help" Natasha, but his idea of assistance is to force Natasha into a career as a high-priced prostitute for upscale pimp Mr. Robert (Jan Nowicki), who sells her services to a ready market of foreign clients. Cory Szczescie/Daughters Of Luck combines socio-political commentary about the notions of exploitation inherent in both prostitution and the relationship between Russia and Poland with steamy soft-core sex sequences featuring the beautiful Olga Drozdowa. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olga Drozdowa, Jan Nowicki, (more)
Set near the end of the Bosnian conflict, director Wladyslaw Pasikowski's high-octane war drama follows the journey of a respected military man who risks it all in order to rescue a brigade of trapped soldiers. As the fighting draws to a close, Major Kellner (Boguslaw Linda) leads a peacekeeping force into Bosnia. Accused of defying orders for his role in rescuing a Polish mercenary from a lynching, Major Keller is already under investigation when he ignores orders and attempts to rescue a group of Polish soldiers on the front. In hopes of finding out what makes the legendary military man tick, Major Kellner's ambitious replacement tags along for the ride. Polish action icons Zbigniew Zamachowski and Olaf Lubaszenko co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Tadeusz Huk, (more)
A Jewish boy struggling to survive the Nazi pogrom during World War II finds an unexpected ally in this period drama. As Nazi troops invade Poland, a young boy from Krakow named Romek (Haley Joel Osment) is given to friends by his parents, who smuggle him out of town in hopes of saving him from the advancing armies. Romek is taken to a rural community, where a sympathetic farming family has agreed to put him up, under the pretense that he's a nephew whose parents have fallen ill. Thanks to his blonde hair and blue eyes, Romek is able to blend in with the largely Catholic townsfolk, though a few of the neighbors become quite suspicious when Romek appears not to know elementary prayers and church procedures. The priest (Willem Dafoe) of the neighborhood's church becomes aware of Romek's secret, and is sympathetic to the boy's problems, so in secret, he coaches Romek in basic catechism, while remaining mindful of the lad's Jewish heritage. But while Romek is getting better at fooling others into believing he's Catholic, he can't escape the signs of the devastation that the Nazi onslaught has wrought against his people. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Haley Joel Osment, Willem Dafoe, (more)
Ewa (Dorota Stalinska) was once a big-name actress. Now she is a drunk, washed-up has-been, living in a very ordinary apartment. She doesn't know how to sincerely express any concern for anyone but herself, and her dreams of returning to prominence as a singer or making a theatrical comeback are undermined by her unpleasant personality. Despite that, she has moments of warmth and tenderness which enable one occasionally to see what her former appeal must have been based on. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorota Stalinska, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, (more)
The handsome heir to a successful Polish brewery becomes corrupted by a decadent princess and her psychotic, sexually salacious, homosexual hunchback jester in Body Without Soul director Wiktor Grodecki's daring adaptation of Stanislaw Igncay Witkiewicz's controversial, 1930s-era novel detailing the ultimate downfall of western civilization. China has set into motion a relentless invasion of Eastern Europe, and as the chiseled idealistic heir ponders the implications of such an act of warfare, the beautiful princess Irina seizes the opportunity to lead him into a life of sexual deviance while setting her sights on his vast fortune. The princess isn't the only one that the confused eighteen-year-old heir has to worry about though, and as the mad monk jester makes a play for his purity, it seems that there is no turning back from a world where war and sex have become permanent partners. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cezary Pazura, Michal Lewandowski, (more)
- 1998
Vladimir Michalek directed this Czech-Polish-Slovak-French WWII period drama about a small Czech village where farmers are threatened by bitter opportunist Sekal (Boguslaw Linda) and his companion, dwarf Zaprdek (Lodovit Cittel). Sekal, who yearns for the respectability of his married half-brother (Martin Sitta), is held in contempt by his father (Jiri Holy). One day, Sekal goes too far, demanding the fields of a neighbor, the mayor's daughter as a bride, and a night with his half-brother's wife. The farmers choose local blacksmith Jura Baran (Olaf Lubaszenko) to execute Sekal. Complicating matters, Baran has become close to the village priest -- and the parish housekeeper is Sekal's mother. Shown at the 1998 Karlovy Vary Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Olaf Lubaszenko, (more)
- 1990
The life of Polish pediatrician Janusz Korczak (Wojtek Pszoniak) is the subject of Andrzej Wajda'a docudrama. Also known as an author who wrote primarily for young readers, Korczak's name became legend as a result of the Jewish orphanage he established in Warsaw. When the invasion of the Nazis in 1939 forced him to move his students to the ghetto, he struggled on without provisions or adequate space, refusing to give in to Nazi pressures. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wojciech Pszoniak, Ewa Dalkowska, (more)
This disturbing and violent feature opens with a scene of a dead rat and a lifeless cat hanging by the neck. As the plot unfolds, Yatzek (Miroslaw Baka) is a 20-year-old drifter who murders a testy taxi driver (Jan Tesarz) in a gut-wrenching scene of excessive violence. Tension continues to build as a newly licensed young attorney (Krzysztof Globisz is chosen to represent Yatzek in court. Much anticipated and well-received at Cannes, the film won the European Film Academy Award for "Best European Film" in 1988. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, (more)
- 1994
In this French coming-of-age drama a 15-year old boy breaks free from his fixation with his older half-sister and learns to trust himself and become independent. The story is set in a rural French town. When his wild half-sister Vivien finally returns home after an eight year absence, young Marc is ecstatic. He is awed by her free-wheeling, independent life. He quietly follows her every move, living vicariously through her. She becomes his teacher, but as Marc observes her more closely he begins to see that his sister has no real sense of self-worth. Her promiscuity is only a mask to hide her lack of self-respect. Marc begins to withdraw and follow his own path. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nathalie Richard, Pascal Cervo, (more)
- 1987
This erotic drama based on the novel by Julius Kaden Bandrowski takes place in Poland during World War I. The heroine, Maryska (Grazyna Trela) is an aristocrat whose husband is missing in action. Rather than mourning his absence, she promptly falls into bed with Professor Ciaglewicz (Jerry Stuhr), one of her husband's friends, but before long seems to have fallen in love with Adam Korwski (Henryk Bista), a seventeen year old boy, who is the son of people she is visiting. The randy older woman initiates the shy youth into sexuality, making love with him in a large variety of ways and positions. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerzy Stuhr, Henryk Bista, (more)
- 1993
Antek (Edward Linde Lubaszenko) was fighting with a Polish unit on the Nazi side in World War II, but after he was captured by the Russians, he was offerred a chance to fight on their side or become a prisoner. He chose to fight. With the Russian's, he liberated Poland from Germany, and had a chance to gain access to his sister-in-law (Marzena Trybala in maturity, and Katarzyna Skrzynecka as a young woman), whom he has lusted after for a long time. They make love and she becomes pregnant. As a result of his wartime service, after World War II, he was among the troops the Russians chose to help institute Communist rule in the country. This left him free to pursue his own advancement. Meanwhile, his brother Ewald (Boguslaw Linda) suspects that his second child is not his, and this, along with other things, contributes to his committing suicide. Afterwards, Antek marries his sister-in-law. When his son (who is still officially his stepson) engages in an unsuitable relationship with a Jewish girl while he is studying in Moscow, his father arranges for him to break it up and the boy eventually marries a suitable local girl. The issue of suitability is important to Antek, as he has political aspirations for his son. Ironically, his son has political aspirations for himself, and he becomes a leading figure in the Solidarity movement, which then overthrows communist rule in Poland. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olaf Lubaszenko, Boguslaw Linda, (more)
Based on a true story, Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List stars Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler, a German businessman in Poland who sees an opportunity to make money from the Nazis' rise to power. He starts a company to make cookware and utensils, using flattery and bribes to win military contracts, and brings in accountant and financier Itzhak Stern (Ben Kingsley) to help run the factory. By staffing his plant with Jews who've been herded into Krakow's ghetto by Nazi troops, Schindler has a dependable unpaid labor force. For Stern, a job in a war-related plant could mean survival for himself and the other Jews working for Schindler. However, in 1942, all of Krakow's Jews are assigned to the Plaszow Forced Labor Camp, overseen by Commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), an embittered alcoholic who occasionally shoots prisoners from his balcony. Schindler arranges to continue using Polish Jews in his plant, but, as he sees what is happening to his employees, he begins to develop a conscience. He realizes that his factory (now refitted to manufacture ammunition) is the only thing preventing his staff from being shipped to the death camps. Soon Schindler demands more workers and starts bribing Nazi leaders to keep Jews on his employee lists and out of the camps. By the time Germany falls to the allies, Schindler has lost his entire fortune -- and saved 1,100 people from likely death. Schindler's List was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture and a long-coveted Best Director for Spielberg, and it quickly gained praise as one of the finest American movies about the Holocaust. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, (more)
- 1987
A pretty widow and her teenage daughter Milka run the farm after their husband and father has died. Their neighbor Krystian occasionally stops by to help in the fields. His presence always makes the young widow more cheerful, but Milka tries to seduce the man at every available chance. Krystian soon becomes the lover to both mother and daughter but leaves after Milka becomes pregnant. After the grief-stricken mother goes insane, Milka marries a homely organist who once dated her mother. Tragedy befalls the psychologically tortured mother as a result of the lurid love triangle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grazyna Szapolowska, Bernaett Machala-Krzeminska, (more)
- 2002
Wojciech Wojcik's period Polish drama Tam I z powrotem (There and Back) stars Janusz Gajos) as a man who must make a difficult decision. Andrzej Hoffman (Gajos) is a doctor in Poland in the 1960s. Having not seen his wife and daughter since the end of WWII when they left the country, Hoffman considers going along with his friend Piotr (Jan Frycz) in a plan to steal money in order to buy illegal passports. There and Back was screened at the Cottbus Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janusz Gajos, Jan Frycz, (more)
- 1988
Jerzy (Jerzy Stuhr) trades a kidney for a rare stamp, only to see a twist of fate underline his folly. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerzy Stuhr, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (more)
- 1988
Nineteen-year-old Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) spies on the older, promiscuous Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska), who then seduces him. This episode was released in an expanded version as A Short Film About Love. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Polish action stars Olaf Lubaszenko, Jan Englert, and Cezary Pazura headline this tense tale of a devastating computer virus that threatens to plunge all of Warsaw into complete chaos. The computer networks of a major bank and a high profile hospital have been compromised, and now in order to defeat the virus authorities have enlisted the aid of a talented young hacker named Michal. Should Michal fail in his daring cyber-mission, the institutions he's attempting to protect are sure to be completely crippled by the virus. Now Michal has noticed something familiar in the code - could it be that his scheming brother Stefan is the cyber-terrorist responsible for this beautifully complex bug? In order to find out for sure, Michel will have to forget about his crush on a pretty bank manager for the time being and use all his skills to crack a code that seems to have no discernable flaws. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olaf Lubaszenko, Jan Englert, (more)
