Zbigniew Zamachowski Movies
- 2009
Rafal Wieczynski helmed this docudrama account of legendary yet ill-fated Polish priest Jerzy Popieluszko, best known as the foremost champion of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement, or Solidarnosc. Despite attaining heroic status in many sectors, Popieluszko also drew wrath from the Communist government and fell prey to an uncommonly violent death at the hands of three Polish Security Service officers in October 1984. This film dramatically recreates the major events of Popieluszko's life, with Adam Woronowicz portraying the martyr, Joanna Szczepkowska as Roma Szczepkowska, and Antoni Krolikowski as Grzegorz Przemyk. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adam Woronowicz, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (more)
- 2007
With the Polish-language drama Hope (2007), scribe and longtime Kieslowski collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz resurrects the tone, feel and themes of their classic Decalogue, by scripting a highly cerebral meditation on morality and ethos. Rafal Fundalej stars as Francis, a clever idealist who works in a church alongside his janitor dad. Late one night, Francis borrows his girlfriend Clare's (Kamilla Baar) video camera, to catch a dangerous art thief, Benedict (Wojciech Pszoniak) lifting an ancient tile from the building. Before long, the young man reaps the vengeance of the burglar, who blows up Francis's car as an obvious and vitriolic threat; the latter merely demands that the culprit replace the artifact and replace the vehicle. Meanwhile, a slightly oafish cop, Sopel (Zbigniew Zamachowski) learns of the goings-on and closes in on Benedict himself. Stanislaw Mucha directs. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rafal Fundalej, Kamilla Baar, (more)
- 2003
German director Hans-Christian Schmid teams up again with writing partner Michael Gutmann for the ensemble film Lichter (Distant Lights). The film takes place during a few days around the Oder River, which acts as a border between Poland and Germany. Several different interrelated stories involve young adults who smuggle cigarettes, a businessman who sells black-market mattresses, and a cab driver trying to get his daughter a communion dress. While trying to cross the river at night, Ukranian Kolya (Ivan Shvedov) is arrested while two other Ukranians (Sergei Frolov and Anna Yanovskaya) are helped by the cab driver. Lichter premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivan Shvedov, Sergei Frolov, (more)
- 2003
Anouk Aimée portrays a holocaust survivor in Marcelline Loridan-Ivens' debut film, The Birch-Tree Meadow. Myriam (Aimée) attends a reunion of survivors where she wins a ticket to Krakow, Poland. After some debate, she decides to journey back to the place of the worst horror she has ever known. After learning about the different kinds of Jewish eateries in Krakow, Myriam gathers the courage to see Auschwitz, were she confronts her own guilt over the death of a friend and meets a sympathetic man who has his own connection to their shared history. This film was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, August Diehl, (more)
- 2002
Adapted from a series of fantasy novels by author Andrzej Sapkowski, this tale of a warrior who takes on the evil forces and a series of fearsome monsters is sure to appeal to fans of J.R.R. Tolkien. Set in the far past, compassionate slayer Geralt continues to wages battle against the forces of darkness in a world where humans sometime seem equally menacing. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michal Zebrowski, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (more)
- 2001
Veteran Polish filmmaker Robert Glinski takes a DV camera in hand to film this grim drama about "blockers," a generation who grew up in the gray soulless blocks of flats that mushroomed throughout the Eastern Bloc during the 1970s. Though she has fond memories of her childhood, Tereska's (Aleksandra Gietner) current living condition is less than ideal: her father is an unemployed alcoholic and her mother is a cold, distant factory worker. Having dreams of becoming a fashion designer, the shy, introverted Tereska enrolls in a trade school dedicated to tailoring and soon becomes fast friends with the brassy, rebellious Renata (Karolina Sobczak). With Renata's help, Tereska soon is smoking her first cigarette, having her furtive sexual encounter, and engaging in her first crime. At the same time, she befriends an elderly custodian named Edek (Zbigniew Zamachowski). This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aleksandra Gietner, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (more)
- 2001
A man struggles to come to terms with a mystery that has haunted him throughout his adult life in this drama from Poland. In 1967, a 13-year-old boy named Dawid discovered a cache of explosives and began experimenting with them; one day, several of his friends saw Dawid wave to them shortly before a massive explosion went off near a railway tunnel, and no one ever saw the young man again. Thirty years later, one of Dawid's close friends, Pawel (Marek Kondrat), returns to Poland for the first time in 11 years to visit Juliane (Juliane Kohler), a woman he used to love. As Pawel returns home, he discovers his thoughts keeps drifting back to Dawid and what might have happened to him that day. Pawel keeps replaying the explosive incident in his mind, and goes so far as to track down Elka (Krystyna Janda), Dawid's girlfriend, who was with him moments before the explosion, though then as now she refuses to talk about what happened. Pawel is unable to determine for sure just what happened or how Dawid died -- or if he did in fact die at all. Weiser was nominated for the Golden Bear award at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marek Kondrat, Krystyna Janda, (more)
- 2001
In this intensely emotional drama, a family plans a reunion in a remote cabin in the mountains, just in time for Christmas. However, when the mother and father, their four adult children with spouses and offspring, and a handful of in-laws are thrown into close quarters for several days, everyone involved begins to fray at the edges emotionally. As it turns out, father has a severe drinking problem that he's been unable to keep under control, and he finally explodes into a tirade that proved deeply shocking for all parties concerned. Director Mona J. Hoel shot Nar Nettene Blir Lange in accordance with the rules of the Dogma 95 movement, which stipulates that films should be shot with handheld cameras using available light and existing locations, without the use of music or sound effects added after the fact. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gorild Mauseth, Svein Scharffenberg, (more)
- 2001
In this bizarre comic fantasy, Duke Osso (Rod Steiger) is the leader of a strange underground nation. Osso's spouse Hera (Malgorzata Potocka) has designs on usurping her husband's rule, and with the help of court jester Balthasar (Dieter Meier), she intends to seize power with the use of a magical crystal that can heal the sick and bring the dead back to life. But in order for the crystal to work, Hera and Balthasar need music, so they try to lure Rumo (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a poor fiddle player, into the underground world by using the affections of Mira (Cornelia Grolimund), Osso's beautiful daughter, as bait. Lightmaker was directed by Dieter Meier, who (in addition to playing Balthasar) is also the leader of the electronic dance/pop group Yello; Boris Blank, his creative partner in the band, composed the film's musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zamachowski, Dieter Meier, (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)
- 1997
Edward Redlinski adapted his own novel and play for this Polish comedy-drama focusing on several Manhattan misfits. Six immigrants seen over four Sundays in December are: a lawyer-criminal who involves his kid brother for a drug heist, a meat-plant laborer hoping to bring over his wife and half-dozen kids, an alcoholic, and an entrepreneur obsessed by the American Dream. The entrepreneur's sister works as a housekeeper for a crippled man who lusts for her. These tales are intercut with home videos from family members back in Poland. Shown at 1998 film fests Gdynia, Karlovy Vary). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (more)
- 1996
It is 1945, and the Russian occupation of Poland has been complete for some time. Kwiatowski, a surgeon, has been given a vacation by one of his grateful patients, a colonel in the (communist) Polish security force, known as the UB. While he is on leave, he takes an old girlfriend on a date at a fancy hotel. When some Russian Soviet officers give him some trouble, he unthinkingly adopts the guise of his patient, the security officer. This deception proves so successful that he finds it useful for any number of purposes, and he begins freeing people from prison and helping all sorts of people who have run into difficulty in the new regime. A highlight of this Polish language film is the satiric use by the main character of Communist Party lingo, as he skillfully turns its intended meanings inside out to manipulate the unwitting Party faithful. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1994
A rube goes to work in the big city and finds himself victimized by the government system he was trained to support in this Polish comedy set in the year of Solidarity, 1991. Country boy Tomasz works in a power plant. He feels alone because he doesn't understand his co-worker's impassioned support of Lech Walesa and unionization. His boss asks him to sneak into an illegal rally and note who is there. Unfortunately, Tomasz is deeply affected by the group and joins the unionists in singing patriotic songs. The police come and break up the rally. A chase ensues. The next day poor Tomasz is arrested because his picture was in the paper with the other unionists. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Just as some women are like catnip for men, attracting them far and wide, in this story a harried young man is in a similar situation with regard to women. Marek (Zbigniew Zamachowski) meets his first girlfriend while studying in Paris at the Sorbonne, and their frenzied affair makes such incredible demands on him, physically, that by the time he returns to Poland he is almost (but not quite) ready to be hospitalized. Instead, he allows himself to be wooed by another woman. This time, he does wind up in the hospital, where he meets and has an affair with a nurse. When she becomes pregnant, he takes his parental responsibilities seriously. Complications surface at his job in a TV station when one of the girls there takes a shine to him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zamachowski, Maria Gladkowska, (more)
- 1991
Reviewers found that the otherwise intriguing story and appealing performances in this film were burdened with an editorial technique they labelled "anti-structural," and "anarchic." Stefek is a small-time hood on the run from the really serious mobsters in the car chase which opens the movie. He briefly finds asylum in, of all places, a mental hospital, where he has himself admitted as a kleptomaniac. When this ruse fails to throw his pursuers off the scent for long, he and his sidekick get jobs at an opera company. As the doorman, he is in an ideal spot to notice and avoid pursuit. One he's been on the job for a while, he discovers that the high-toned art palace he works in does double-duty as an equally high-toned brothel. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zamachowski
- 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)
- 1990
The censor in this film is accustomed to watching characters of the films he sees speak only the lines he has permitted them to speak. He generally knows within a word exactly what he will hear. It's a boring job, but he appreciates the cat-and-mouse game of trying to suppress anything forbidden in the face of steady efforts to sneak something past him. However, it has all become old hat to him. One day at the Liberty Cinema, a commercial movie theater near his offices, the characters on the movie screen start speaking out of character and refuse to speak the lines written for them. This provokes a furor, and he is called in to attempt to deal with the situation -- to no avail. Eventually he relates the obduracy of the characters to that of those in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo, but his efforts to control the situation with that understanding backfire when characters from one film start showing up in the other one. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janusz Gajos, Zbigniew Zamachowski, (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)
- 1981
Ricky (Zbigniew Zamachowski) and his friend Julian (Jan Piechocinski) are having a great celebration of life bounding through Warsaw spending a large wad of "hot" money snitched out of villa while Ricky was looking for food. Since the money was "stored" in the refrigerator, it is someone else's ill-gotten gains, now transformed into an ill-gotten loss. Ricky is on the run from a reform school and Julian is sought by some irate firemen looking for their stolen funds. Between the two friends, they might as well have a good time before their time, good or bad, runs out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zbigniew Zamachowski, Jan Piechocinski, (more)
