Agnieszka Holland
Encyclopedia
Agnieszka Holland is a Polish
film and TV director and screenwriter. Best recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.
, Poland
, the daughter of journalists Irena (née
Rybczyńska) and Henryk Holland. Her Jewish father's parents were killed in the ghetto
, and her mother was a Catholic
who fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising
and was a member of the Polish Underground. Holland was raised without religion. Holland's mother later re-married to journalist Stanisław Brodzki. Holland is the mother of Kasia Adamik, another Polish film director.
(FAMU) in 1971. She began her career as an assistant director for the Polish film directors Krzysztof Zanussi
and Andrzej Wajda
, including Zanussi's 1973 film Iluminacja and Wajda's 1982 film Danton
. Holland's first major film was Provincial Actors (Aktorzy Prowincjonalni, 1978), a chronicle of tense backstage relations within a small-town theater company that served as an allegory for Poland's contemporary political situation. The film won the International Critics Prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival
.
Holland only directed two more major films in Poland, Fever
(Gorączka, 1980) and A Lonely Woman (Kobieta samotna, 1981), before emigrating to France, just before martial law
was declared in Poland in December 1981. Fever
was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival
. Holland received an Academy Award
nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for her 1985 film Angry Harvest
, a German production about a Jewish woman on the run in World War II
.
Perhaps Holland's best-known and well-regarded film is Europa Europa
(1991), based on the biography of Solomon Perel
, a Jewish teenager who fled Germany for Poland following Kristallnacht
in 1938. Upon the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion
of Poland, Perel fled to the Soviet
-occupied section of Poland. Later captured during the German invasion of Russia in 1941, Soloman convinced a German officer that he was German and found himself enrolled in the Hitler Youth. The film received a lukewarm reception in Germany and the German Oscar selection committee did not include the film as a submission for the 1991 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. However, it became one of the most successful German films released in the US, winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
A friend of the noted Polish writer and director, Krzysztof Kieślowski
, Holland collaborated on the screenplay for his film, Three Colors: Blue
. Like Kieślowski, Holland frequently examines issues of faith
in her work.
In a 1988 interview, she said that although women were important in her films, feminism
was not the central theme of her work. Rather she suggested that when she was making films in Poland under the communist regime, there was an atmosphere of cross-gender solidarity against censorship
, which was seen as the main political issue.
Holland's later films include Olivier, Olivier
(1992), The Secret Garden (1993), Total Eclipse
(1995), Washington Square
(1997), the HBO production Shot in the Heart
(2001), Julie Walking Home
(2001) and Copying Beethoven (2006).
In 2004 she directed "Moral Midgetry" the eighth episode of the third season of HBO drama series The Wire
. She returned in 2006 to direct the eighth episode of the fourth season "Corner Boys". Both episodes were written by acclaimed novelist Richard Price
. Show runner
David Simon credits producer Nina K. Noble for attracting Holland to the show through their association working on HBO movie Shot In The Heart. Simon said that Holland was "wonderful behind the camera" and did an excellent job of staging the fight between Avon Barksdale
and Stringer Bell
in "Moral Midgetry".
In 2007 she directed together with her sister Magdalena Łazarkiewicz and daughter Katarzyna Adamik the Polish political drama series Ekipa. She is currently on the faculty as filmmaker-in-residence at Brooklyn College
, City University of New York
.
On 5 February 2009 the Krakow Post
reported that Holland will direct a biopic about Krystyna Skarbek
entitled Christine: War My Love.
Her 2011 film In Darkness
has been selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film
at the 84th Academy Awards
.
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
film and TV director and screenwriter. Best recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.
Personal life
Holland was born in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the daughter of journalists Irena (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Rybczyńska) and Henryk Holland. Her Jewish father's parents were killed in the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
, and her mother was a Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
who fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
and was a member of the Polish Underground. Holland was raised without religion. Holland's mother later re-married to journalist Stanisław Brodzki. Holland is the mother of Kasia Adamik, another Polish film director.
Career
Holland graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in PragueFilm and TV School of The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague or FAMU is one of the oldest film schools in Europe. Located in Prague, Czech Republic, FAMU was founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague...
(FAMU) in 1971. She began her career as an assistant director for the Polish film directors Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi
Krzysztof Zanussi, is a Polish producer and film director.He is a professor of European film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland where he conducts a summer workshop...
and Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...
, including Zanussi's 1973 film Iluminacja and Wajda's 1982 film Danton
Danton (1983 film)
Danton is a 1983 French language film depicting the last months of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the Polish play The Danton Case by Stanislawa Przybyszewska....
. Holland's first major film was Provincial Actors (Aktorzy Prowincjonalni, 1978), a chronicle of tense backstage relations within a small-town theater company that served as an allegory for Poland's contemporary political situation. The film won the International Critics Prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
Holland only directed two more major films in Poland, Fever
Fever (1981 film)
Fever is a 1981 Polish drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival where Barbara Grabowska won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Cast:* Barbara Grabowska - Kama* Adam Ferency - Wojtek Kielza...
(Gorączka, 1980) and A Lonely Woman (Kobieta samotna, 1981), before emigrating to France, just before martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
was declared in Poland in December 1981. Fever
Fever (1981 film)
Fever is a 1981 Polish drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival where Barbara Grabowska won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Cast:* Barbara Grabowska - Kama* Adam Ferency - Wojtek Kielza...
was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival
31st Berlin International Film Festival
The 31st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1981.-Jury:* Jutta Brückner * Denis Héroux* Astrid Henning-Jensen* Irina Petrovna Kuptschenko* Peter Bichsel* Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi...
. Holland received an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for her 1985 film Angry Harvest
Angry Harvest
Angry Harvest is a 1985 West German film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is based on a novel written by Hermann Field and Stanislaw Mierzenski while they were imprisoned by the Polish government in the early 1950s...
, a German production about a Jewish woman on the run in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Perhaps Holland's best-known and well-regarded film is Europa Europa
Europa Europa
Europa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon". It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but...
(1991), based on the biography of Solomon Perel
Solomon Perel
Solomon Perel is an author and motivational speaker. He was born 21 April, 1925 in Peine, Lower Saxony, Germany to a German Jewish family. He escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German...
, a Jewish teenager who fled Germany for Poland following Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
in 1938. Upon the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion
Barbarossa
Barbarossa, a name meaning red beard in Italian, may refer to any of these:-People:* Emperor Barbarossa or Frederick I , Holy Roman Emperor...
of Poland, Perel fled to the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-occupied section of Poland. Later captured during the German invasion of Russia in 1941, Soloman convinced a German officer that he was German and found himself enrolled in the Hitler Youth. The film received a lukewarm reception in Germany and the German Oscar selection committee did not include the film as a submission for the 1991 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. However, it became one of the most successful German films released in the US, winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
A friend of the noted Polish writer and director, Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
, Holland collaborated on the screenplay for his film, Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
. Like Kieślowski, Holland frequently examines issues of faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
in her work.
In a 1988 interview, she said that although women were important in her films, feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
was not the central theme of her work. Rather she suggested that when she was making films in Poland under the communist regime, there was an atmosphere of cross-gender solidarity against censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
, which was seen as the main political issue.
Holland's later films include Olivier, Olivier
Olivier, Olivier
Olivier, Olivier is a 1992 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It stars Frédéric Quiring. It won an award at the 1992 Valladolid International Film Festival.The plot involves a nine year-old boy who disappears...
(1992), The Secret Garden (1993), Total Eclipse
Total Eclipse (film)
Total Eclipse is a 1995 film directed by Agnieszka Holland, based on a 1967 play by Christopher Hampton, who also wrote the screenplay. Based on letters and poems, it presents a historically accurate account of the passionate and violent relationship between the two 19th century French poets Paul...
(1995), Washington Square
Washington Square (film)
Washington Square is a 1997 American drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The screenplay by Carol Doyle is based on the 1880 novel of the same name by Henry James, which was filmed as The Heiress in 1949.-Plot summary:...
(1997), the HBO production Shot in the Heart
Shot in the Heart
Shot in the Heart is a memoir written by Mikal Gilmore, then a senior contributing editor at Rolling Stone, about his tumultuous childhood in a dysfunctional family, and his brother Gary Gilmore's eventual execution by firing squad in 1977 for a convenience store murder he committed in Provo,...
(2001), Julie Walking Home
Julie Walking Home
Julie Walking Home is a 2002 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It stars Miranda Otto and William Fichtner. It won an award at the 2003 Method Fest.-Plot:...
(2001) and Copying Beethoven (2006).
In 2004 she directed "Moral Midgetry" the eighth episode of the third season of HBO drama series The Wire
The Wire (TV series)
The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
. She returned in 2006 to direct the eighth episode of the fourth season "Corner Boys". Both episodes were written by acclaimed novelist Richard Price
Richard Price (writer)
Richard Price is an American novelist and screenwriter, known for the books The Wanderers and Clockers.-Early life:...
. Show runner
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
David Simon credits producer Nina K. Noble for attracting Holland to the show through their association working on HBO movie Shot In The Heart. Simon said that Holland was "wonderful behind the camera" and did an excellent job of staging the fight between Avon Barksdale
Avon Barksdale
Avon Randolph Barksdale is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire portrayed by actor Wood Harris. Avon is the dominant drug dealer of Baltimore's West Side, running the Barksdale Organization...
and Stringer Bell
Stringer Bell
Russell "Stringer" Bell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by English actor Idris Elba. Bell served as drug kingpin Avon Barksdale's second in command, assuming direct control of the Barksdale Organization during Avon's imprisonment...
in "Moral Midgetry".
In 2007 she directed together with her sister Magdalena Łazarkiewicz and daughter Katarzyna Adamik the Polish political drama series Ekipa. She is currently on the faculty as filmmaker-in-residence at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
.
On 5 February 2009 the Krakow Post
Krakow Post
The Krakow Post is an English-language monthly newspaper based in Krakow, Poland and owned by Lifeboat Ltd. It covers local and national news, politics, human interest stories, culture, business, and sports and uses only original content. It came under new ownership in April 2008, beginning with...
reported that Holland will direct a biopic about Krystyna Skarbek
Krystyna Skarbek
Krystyna Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre was a Polish Special Operations Executive agent. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France....
entitled Christine: War My Love.
Her 2011 film In Darkness
In Darkness (2011 film)
In Darkness is a 2011 Polish drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film has been selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards...
has been selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
at the 84th Academy Awards
84th Academy Awards
The 84th Academy Awards ceremony will honor the best films of 2011 and will take place on February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It will be televised in the United States on ABC. The host was originally going to be Eddie Murphy. However, after Brett Ratner resigned as...
.
Quotes
- "His penis saved his soul. Otherwise, he might have become a total Nazi." (on Europa Europa protagonist Solomon PerelSolomon PerelSolomon Perel is an author and motivational speaker. He was born 21 April, 1925 in Peine, Lower Saxony, Germany to a German Jewish family. He escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German...
, a circumcised Jew who posed as an "Aryan" German during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to escape persecution)
Filmography
- In DarknessIn Darkness (2011 film)In Darkness is a 2011 Polish drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film has been selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards...
(2011) - The KillingThe Killing (TV series)The Killing is a BAFTA Award winning and Emmy nominated Danish crime TV series produced by Danmarks Radio. Each series follows the police investigation of one specific case, day by day, with a one-hour episode covering 24 hours of the investigation...
TV series, episode 6: "What You Have Left" & episode 9: "Undertow" (2011) - TremeTreme (TV series)Treme is an American television drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO. It takes its name from Tremé, a neighborhood of New Orleans...
TV series, pilot episode (2010) - The True Story of Janosik and Uhorcik (2009)
- Ekipa (2007)
- The WireThe Wire (TV series)The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
- Episode 3.08 "Moral Midgetry" (2004)
- Episode 4.08 "Corner Boys" (2006)
- Episode 5.05 "React QuotesReact Quotes"React Quotes" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the HBO original series, The Wire. The episode was written by David Mills from a story by David Simon & David Mills and was directed by Agnieszka Holland...
" (2008)
- Copying Beethoven (2006)
- Julie Walking Home (2002)
- Golden DreamsGolden DreamsGolden Dreams is a film about the history of California. It was a featured attraction at Disney's California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opening with the park on February 8, 2001. It starred Whoopi Goldberg as Califia, the Queen of California. On September 7,...
(documentary, 2001) - Shot in the Heart (2001)
- The Third MiracleThe Third MiracleThe Third Miracle is a 1999 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland starring Ed Harris and Anne Heche. The film was shot in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.-Plot summary:...
(1999) - Washington SquareWashington Square (film)Washington Square is a 1997 American drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The screenplay by Carol Doyle is based on the 1880 novel of the same name by Henry James, which was filmed as The Heiress in 1949.-Plot summary:...
(1997) - Total EclipseTotal Eclipse (film)Total Eclipse is a 1995 film directed by Agnieszka Holland, based on a 1967 play by Christopher Hampton, who also wrote the screenplay. Based on letters and poems, it presents a historically accurate account of the passionate and violent relationship between the two 19th century French poets Paul...
(1995) - Red Wind (TV movie, 1994)
- The Secret Garden (1993)
- Olivier, OlivierOlivier, OlivierOlivier, Olivier is a 1992 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It stars Frédéric Quiring. It won an award at the 1992 Valladolid International Film Festival.The plot involves a nine year-old boy who disappears...
(1992) - Europa, EuropaEuropa EuropaEuropa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon". It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but...
(1990, Academy Award nominee for the best screenplayAcademy Award for Writing Adapted ScreenplayThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
) - To Kill a PriestTo Kill a PriestTo Kill a Priest is a 1988 drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. The film tells a story based on the murder, under the Polish communist regime, of priest Jerzy Popiełuszko...
(1988) - Angry HarvestAngry HarvestAngry Harvest is a 1985 West German film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is based on a novel written by Hermann Field and Stanislaw Mierzenski while they were imprisoned by the Polish government in the early 1950s...
(Bittere Ernte, 1985, Germany, Academy Award nominee for the best foreign language filmAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmThe Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
) - Culture (documentary, 1985)
- InterrogationInterrogation (film)Interrogation is a 1982 Polish crime film directed by Ryszard Bugajski. Due to its anti-communist themes, the Polish communist government banned the film from public viewing for over seven years, until the 1989 dissolution of the Eastern Bloc allowed it to see the light of day...
(1982) - Postcards from Paris (TV movie, 1982)
- A Lonely Woman (Kobieta samotna, 1981)
- FeverFever (1981 film)Fever is a 1981 Polish drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland. It was entered into the 31st Berlin International Film Festival where Barbara Grabowska won the Silver Bear for Best Actress.-Cast:* Barbara Grabowska - Kama* Adam Ferency - Wojtek Kielza...
(Gorączka, 1980) - Provincial Actors (Aktorzy prowincjonalni, 1978, International Critics Prize at Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
) - Something for something (Coś za coś, TV movie, 1977)
- Screen tests (Zdjęcia próbne, 1976)
- Sunday Children (Niedzielne dzieci, 1977)
- Pictures from Life: A Girl and Aquarius (Obrazki z życia: dziewczyna i "Akwarius", 1975)
- Evening at Abdon's (Wieczór u Abdona, 1975)
- Jesus Christ's Sin (Grzech Boga, 1970)