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What is Agnieszka Holland famous for?  One of her first roles was played by Leonardo DiCaprio

What is Agnieszka Holland famous for? One of her first roles was played by Leonardo DiCaprio

Agnieszka Holland is one of the most famous Polish directors. She took her first steps alongside outstanding local filmmakers, and is currently a winner of awards at the most prestigious festivals. She also writes screenplays and was also an actress in the past. Her biography is very interesting. What films has she created and what else does the renowned director do?

The 74-year-old director comes from Warsaw, where she graduated from the Second Secondary School. Stefan Batory. She went to the Czech Republic to study at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1968, she took an active part in student strikes during the Prague Spring. Three years later she returned to Poland.

Then she started collaborating with Andrzej Wajda and the newly created “X” Film Team, trying to make her own film in the meantime. However, neither script was accepted by the communist censorship. His first television short film “Evening at Abdon’s” she managed to film in 1975.

She made her debut in great style and immediately all over the world

She made her feature-length debut three years later. Thanks to her work on television and contacts with professionals, she finally started preparing for the film.Provincial actors” It was with this title that she launched her international career. The production won the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Award at the Cannes Film Festival, drawing the attention of foreign critics to the then young director.

Agnieszka Holland has had her own style since then. In his films, he focuses on the individual experiences of people on the sidelines of political events. A common theme she raises is criticism of Nazi and communist crimes. Film experts and film researchers point out that what her films have in common is “a vision of the world as a trap in which man struggles unsuccessfully to give meaning to his existence, being only a toy in the power of a soulless fate or a capricious God.” They often call the trap from which there is no escape “Kundera” because, in their opinion, Holland’s films resemble Milan Kundera’s prose.

However, she gained recognition in Poland three years later, when in 1981 she received an award for a historical film “Fever“. It is worth mentioning that this is Agnieszka Holland’s penultimate film made in Poland before her emigration in 1981. It was created in the atmosphere of euphoria after the signing of the August Agreements. Just like her next work, which she managed to complete before the declaration of martial law. It is movie “A lonely woman“, who was critical of both the Solidarity community and the sad communist reality.

Maria Chwalibóg and Bogusław Linda in Agnieszka Holland’s film entitled ‘A Single Woman’ from 1981 TVP promotional materials

The film was censored and was shown only in 1988 at the Gdynia Film Festival, where it received the Special Jury Prize as compensation. Meanwhile, Agnieszka Holland had been living abroad for several years. She left shortly before the outbreak of martial law and later decided not to return to the country. Initially she lived in France and later in Germany, where in 1985 she shot the film “Bitter harvest“. This controversial production about the fate of a young woman who managed to escape from a train heading to a concentration camp was nominated for an Oscar in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category.

During this time, she also managed to establish cooperation with Milan Kundera, who was once her lecturer. She translated his novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” from Czech into Polish. In our country it was published only three years after its Czech premiere. It was first published by the Krakow Oficyna Literacka in 1985. The director also intended to adapt his other novel, “Farewell Waltz”, but ultimately did not do so.

Agnieszka Holland focused on a career abroad, but did not forget about Poland

She has produced subsequent productions all over the world, including many in the United States. A year before the overthrow of communism in Poland, she created the film “Kill the priest“. It is an American-French co-production based on the events related to the murder of priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, committed in Poland four years earlier. At the end of history, neither communist activists nor the Catholic press liked the production. However, Andrzej Wajda called it “the culmination of Polish school”.

Her next famous film is “Europe, Europe” from 1990, which is about the Holocaust of the Jews. The production was nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay and for a Golden Globe in the category “best foreign language film”. In later years, she created several films that did not touch on politics. They are “Olivier, Olivier” from 1991, “Secret Garden“from 1993 or created a year later”Total eclipse“.

The kissing scene between David Thewlis and Leonardo DiCaprio in Agnieszka Holland's 1995 film 'Total Eclipse'The kissing scene between David Thewlis and Leonardo DiCaprio in Agnieszka Holland’s 1995 film ‘Total Eclipse’ Solopan promotional materials

In this film, one of the main roles was played by the very young Leonardo DiCaprio. The production told the story of a toxic homosexual relationship between 19th century French poets – Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlain. The then-would-be Hollywood star played the role of the former, who was the younger lover. The role of the latter was played by David Thewlis. His hero left his wife and son to live with a man.

The film did not win the acclaim of critics, who said it was “without imagination”, but the director managed to regain the sympathy of the reviewers at the premiere of her next film. In 1997, she made a film adaptation of Henry James’s novel entitled “Washington Square“, which received praise for being a truer adaptation than another film based on the same novel.

In the new millennium, she visited her homeland much more often

In the following years, she made many films such as:Third miracle“, “Julia returns home“, Whether “The master’s copy“, but it was only in 2007 that she returned to Poland to create something. The first was the series “Team“, which was the first entirely Polish production by Agnieszka Holland in 25 years. She shot it together with her daughter Kasia Adamik, sister Magdalena Łazarkiewicz and Borys Lankosz. It was one of the first political fiction series in Poland, which told the story of Prime Minister Turski. It was broadcast in Polsat.

Two years later, also in cooperation with her daughter, she shot the Polish-Czech-Slovak-Hungarian series “Janosik. True story“, the aim of which was to rewrite the fate of a Slovak highwayman, recognized both in Slovakia and Poland as a national hero. In 2011, the film “In the dark” with Robert Więckiewicz in the main role. It told the story of a sewer worker who risked his life to save escapees from the Lviv ghetto during World War II. The film was the best-awarded film at the festival in Gdynia, winning nine statuettes, including the Golden Lions and the award for directing. It was also nominated for an Oscar in the “Best Foreign Language Film” category.

Robert Więckiewicz and Milla Bańkowicz in Agnieszka Holland's film entitled  'In Darkness' from 2011Robert Więckiewicz and Milla Bańkowicz in Agnieszka Holland’s film entitled ‘In Darkness’ from 2011 Kino Świat promotional materials

Over the next few years, she made an adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s novel “Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead” entitled “Pokot“or a series made for Netflix”1983“However, the most buzz recently was the film shot in 2019”Citizen Jones” about a Welsh journalist who was a correspondent in the USSR and was one of the first to describe the Great Famine in Ukraine in the 1930s. The production was awarded the Golden Lion at the Gdynia Film Festival and was recognized by both liberal and conservative critics.

The “green border” arouses admiration in the world and hatred in Poland. Will he get the Golden Lion?

In turn, now the latter do not leave a dry note on her latest production. In 2022, inspired by the migration crisis on the border of Belarus with the European Union, she announced the creation of the film “Green border“. The production features three perspectives – refugees, activists and border guards. The main character is psychologist Julia (Maja Ostaszewska), who, after moving to Podlasie, decides to get involved in real help for refugees who are trying to cross the border illegally.

The film is taking part in this year’s main competition at the Venice Film Festival and is a favorite to win the Golden Lion. During the premiere, the film received a 15-minute standing ovation, and now the largest pop culture media in the world are writing about it in only superlatives. However, in Poland he is a victim of hate from government politicians and internet trolls with right-wing views. , , but the premiere in Poland has not yet taken place. It is scheduled for September 22.

Source: Gazeta

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