Szapołowska, Grażyna

(1953-)

   One of the most popular of contemporary Polish actresses voted the best Polish actress in 1985, 1986, 1988, and 1999 by readers of the popular weekly Film. Following her film debut in 1974, she appeared in several supporting roles, usually typecast as a sex symbol. Her breakthrough film proved to be the 1982 Hungarian production directed by Karoly Makk, Another Way, which dealt with Stalinist politics and lesbian love. In the 1980s, Szapołowska played major roles in films directed by Wiesław Saniewski (Custody, 1985), Filip Bajon (The Magnate, 1987), and Andrzej Barański (Taboo, 1987). International audiences became familiar with her thanks to the leading roles in Krzysztof Kieslowski's films; she appeared as the grieving wife Urszula in No End (1985) and as the attractive artist-weaver Magda in Decalogue 6 and A Short Film about Love, both films made in 1988. For A Short Film about Love she received acting awards at the Festival of Polish Films and at the Chicago Film Festival. Also in 1988, she appeared in another well-received Hungarian production, Istvan Szabo's Hanussen. At the beginning of the 1990s, Szapołowska played in several foreign, mostly Italian, productions. She maintained her popularity in Poland with films such as Leszek Wosiewicz's Family Events (1997) and Andrzej Wajda's Pan Tadeusz, for which she received the Polish Film Award "Eagle." In recent years, she played in films such as Warszawa (2003), directed by Dariusz Gajewski, and Just You Love Me (Tylko mnie kochaj, 2006), directed by Ryszard Zatorski.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof