Obituaries: Polish filmmakers Tadeusz Konwicki and Krzysztof Krauze

13-01-2015

Obituaries: Polish filmmakers Tadeusz Konwicki and Krzysztof Krauze

By Katarzyna Grynienko

Tadeusz Konwicki, credit: tvp.info and Krzysztof Krauze

WARSAW: Poland is mourning the loss of two of Poland’s greatest filmmakers, writer, director and screenwriter Taduesz Konwicki and director and screenwriter Krzysztof Krauze.

Krzysztof Krauze (61) passed away on 24 December 2014 after a long battle with cancer. He was the son of a highly acclaimed actress Krystyna Krakowska; he graduated from the Łodz Film School with a degree in cinematography. Krauze made his feature debut with New York - Four In The Morning (TOR Film Studio) in 1988. He was was critically acclaimed for his dramas and won numerous awards including two Polish Eagle Film Awards, for best screenplay and best direction for the film The Debt (ZEBRA Film Studio) in 2000 and again in 2007 (with his wife JoannaKos-Krauze) for directing Saviour Square (ZEBRA Film Studio).

Krauze also received the main prize at the Karlovy Vary Festival in 2005 as the director of My Nikifor produced by WFDiF . His most recent project was Papusza (Argomedia). Before his death he started developing a feature entitled Birds Sing in Kigali, inspired by a short story written by Wojciech Albiński about the genocide in Rwanda, and a separate script about the crimes of the Jedwabne pogrom.

Considered to be one of the fathers of modern Polish cinema and one of the founders of the Polish Filmmakers Association, Tadeusz Konwicki (88) passed away on 7 January. As a writer he is most recognized for A Dreambook for Our Time, The Polish Complex and A Minor Apocalypse. He was one of the most important Polish filmmakers of the 20th Century. He directed The Issa Valley based on a novel by Czesław Miłosz and Lava based on Forefathers' Eve by Adam Mickiewicz, both produced by PERSPEKTYWA Film Studio.

Between 1956 and 1968 he was the Literarary Director at KADR Film Studio. He also wrote scripts for Mother Joan of the Angels (KADR Film Studio) by Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Pharo (KADR Film Studio) and Jowita (KADR Film Studio) by Janusz Morgenstern. He was awarded in Venice, Mannheim, San Remo and Gdynia. He received the Golden Tapes Award for Lava from film critics at the Polish Filmmakers Association, the Polish Eagle Film Award for Lifetime Achievements in 2002, the Gloria Artis medal in 2005 and Platinum Lions for Lifetime Achievements at the Gdynia Film Festival in 2011.