Barański, Andrzej

(1941-)

   Since his directorial debut in 1975, Barański has become known for his realistic portrayal of the underprivileged, deromanticized, hardworking characters who approach life as a task to accomplish and survive day by day. Baranski's films expose the banality of everyday life and ignore politics. For example, The Haunted (Niech cię odleci mara, 1982) portrays a provincial town somewhere in central Poland during the Stalinist period and the film's personal, almost nostalgic tone stands in sharp contrast to the explicitly political works produced at that time. Another film, arguably Baranski's most important work, A Provincial Woman (Kobieta z prowincji, 1985), introduces a sixty-year-old woman in a small town. The film registers her modest life devoid of politics and stresses the simplicity of her existence. An interest in "simple people" and the warmth emanating from characters like the one in A Provincial Woman became Barański's trademark. He made several notable films at the beginning of the 1990s, including The Peddler (Kramarz, 1990), By the River Nowhere (Nad rzeką, której nie ma, 1991), A Bachelor's Life Abroad (Kawalerskie zycie na obczyznie, 1992), and Two Moons (Dwa księżyce, 1993). The uniqueness of his poetics is seen at its best in The Peddler, a film about an itinerant salesman, which painstakingly re-creates the material aspect of the Polish Communist past. Barański is also the author of more than thirty short documentary films, several of them honored at national and international film festivals.

   Other films: At Home (W domu, TV, 1976), Free Moments (Wolne chwile, 1979), Taboo (Tabu, 1987), Horror in Merry Marshes (Horror w Wesołych Bagniskach, 1995), The Day of the Big Fish (Dzień wielkiej ryby, 1996), Let the Music Play (Niech gra muzyka, TV, 2002), All the Saints (Wszyscy święci, TV, 2002), Several People, Little Time (Parę osób, mały czas, 2005).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof