His father taught him “writing, shooting and respect for women.” There was one thing he couldn’t forgive him for

Mirosław Żuławski was born on January 16, 1913 in Nisko. He was a poet, columnist and diplomat. He came from a family with rich artistic traditions. His uncle, Jerzy Żuławski, was the “father of Polish science fiction”. It was based on his “Moon Trilogy” that Andrzej Żuławski made “On the Silver Globe”. However, before Andrzej picked up the camera, Mirosław married Czesława Janiakówna, whose closest relatives called Mirka. The director was born in Lviv in 1940.

Andrzej Żuławski was born in the heart of the war. The family struggled with poverty and hunger

After the outbreak of the war, and especially after the entry of German troops, the Żuławski family struggled with many difficulties. The worst was the hunger.

We ate mainly ‘nail’ soups or ‘nothing’ soup, as my mother-in-law used to say, and millet with artificial pudding from a bag. It was exceptionally nasty and each time we swore to ourselves that after the war we would never put it in our mouths. To this day we have kept our word

– in memories from Lviv published in “Twój Styl”. At that time, the most important thing for the whole family was that “Andrzejek” had something to eat.

Mirosław Żuławski fed lice during the war. “Thanks to the father’s sacrifice, the mother had something to put in the pot”

During the occupation, Mirosław Żuławski worked as… a lice feeder. Thanks to this, he could operate freely in the Home Army, and his hospital papers protected him from roundups. The Germans were so afraid of typhus that when they saw documents confirming employment at the institute, they avoided their holders at a distance.

The feeder fed eight thousand lice between seven and eight in the morning. […] It was done like this: the breeders – because it was mainly girls – gave us wooden cages, one side of which was made of silk mesh. The cages were attached to the calves with rubber straps on this side. There were two rows of cages on each calf

– Żuławski recalled. The story of feeding lice will return to the screens thanks to Andrzej and his debut. He wrote the script for the film “The Third Part of the Night” together with his father, or rather thanks to his memories and stories. – Thanks to my father’s sacrifice, my mother had something to put in the pot, and we avoided arrests – Andrzej years later.

This was a topic close to me, because since I was a child I was convinced that feeding lice with blood was completely normal. And only when I started making films, I realized that, on the contrary, it was very abnormal

– in turn in the book “Żuławski. The Last Word”.

Mirosław Żuławski resented his son for becoming a director. Andrzej Żuławski said that his father “ran away all his life”

At the end of the war, the Żuławski family moved to Lublin. In 1945, they went to Paris, where Mirosław Żuławski stayed as a cultural counselor at the Polish embassy there. In 1949, they went to Prague for three years, only to return to Paris in 1956. This time, Żuławski became Poland’s representative at UNESCO. For some time, Andrzej Żuławski resented his father for being in the Polish United Workers’ Party and collaborating with the communist regime. As he admitted, he finally “grew up and understood.” In turn, his father blamed him for choosing to study at the Łódź Film School.

Mirosław’s younger sons, Łukasz and Mateusz, were born in Paris. – Our father was completely occupied with writing. He taught his sons four things: typing, driving, shooting because he was a hunter, and respecting women. He took care of us only when we were 10-11 years old – admitted Mateusz Żuławski in an interview – He was running away all his life, we don’t know what from – recalled Andrzej Żuławski. Mirosław Żuławski died on February 17, 1995 in Warsaw. He was ambassador in Dakar, wrote reports and columns, and even took part in the Vietnam War and the First Indochina War. Andrzej Żuławski died exactly 21 years later, on February 17, 2016.