Zamachowski, Zbigniew

(1961-)

   Prolific, talented, and versatile theatrical and film actor, whose main specialty is ordinary characters struggling under the pressure of politics. For international audiences Zamachowski is perhaps best known for his vibrant performances in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue 10 (1988) and, in particular, in Three Colors: White (1994). In the latter, he played Karol, a prize-winning Polish hairdresser living in Paris who goes through a bitter divorce with his French wife, Dominique. Since his debut, the lead role in the 1981 road movie Big Picnic (Wielka majówka, Krzysztof Rogulski), Zamachowski has appeared in more than eighty films and was voted the best Polish actor in 1994 and 2001 in a popular plebiscite conducted by the magazine Film. He played in several Polish films made at the beginning of the 1990s, including Andrzej Wajda's Korczak (1990), Wojciech Marczewski's Escape from the "Freedom" Cinema (1990), and the lead role in Bogusław Linda's directorial debut, Seychelles (1990).

   Zamachowski's popularity was sealed in Kazimierz Kutz's tragicomic films The Turned Back (1994) and Colonel Kwiatkowski (1996). One of his best performances is in the role of a simple worker in The Turned Back who is sent as a Communist informer to a Solidarity demonstration and returns as a changed man. In recent years Zamachowski appeared in diverse films, such as the historical epic With Fire and Sword (1999, Jerzy Hoffman) in which he played Colonel Wołodyjowski, the gritty, realistic Hi, Tereska (2001, Robert Gliński) in a strong supporting role as a handicapped man, and the suspense drama Station (Stacja, 2001, Piotr Wereśniak). Critics in Poland praised his lead roles in Andrzej Jakimowski's slow-paced drama Squint Your Eyes (Zmruz oczy, 2003) and in the postmodernist comedy Body (Ciało, 2003) directed by Tomasz Konecki and Andrzej Saramonowicz. Equally well received were his strong supporting roles in Teresa Kotlarczyk's The Primate: Three Years out of the Millennium (Prymas. Trzy lata z tysiąclecia, 2000) and Ryszard Brylski's White Soup (Żurek, 2003). In 2006 he received the Best Actor award at the Festival of Polish Films in Gdynia for his lead role in Sylwester Chęcińskis The Uhlans Have Arrived.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof