Zapasiewicz, Zbigniew

(1934-)

   Accomplished theatrical and film actor, best known for his screen performances in Krzysztof Zanussi's films. After completing the State Acting School in Warsaw (PWST) in 1956, Zapasiewicz acted in Warsaw theaters. Beginning in 1963, he started to appear in episodic roles in several films, including Jerzy Skolimowski's The Barrier (1966), in which he played a blind man. Zanussi's highly regarded television drama, Next Door (1971), where he starred with another favorite actor of Zanussi, Maja Komorowska, proved to be Zapasiewicz's breakthrough film. Although he is a versatile actor, his screen persona became associated with the role of an academic professor (docent), the character he played in Next Door. He played such a character, the cynical Professor Szelestowski, in Zanussi's Camouflage (1977), for which he received the Best Actor award at the Festival of Polish Films. The same award and the Polish Film Award "Eagle" were given to him recently for another role in Zanussi's film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease (2000), where he played a terminally ill character, Tomasz Berg. Also acclaimed was his performance in Zanussi's bitter political satire Persona Non Grata (2005), where he starred as a Polish ambassador in Uruguay grieving over the sudden death of his wife.

   Zapasiewicz also played several lead roles in films directed by Edward Żebrowski, such as Deliverance (1972) and The Hospital of Transfiguration (1979). He is also known for his tour de force performance in the role of a disillusioned journalist in one of the seminal films of the Cinema of Distrust period—Andrzej Wajda's Rough Treatment (1978). He also played supporting roles in Wajda's other films, for example, as ruthless factory owner Kessler in The Promised Land (1975). Polish viewers appreciated Zapasiewicz's role as an opera singer in Janusz Zaorski's Baritone (1985), as well as his portrayal of Marshall Józef Piłsudski in Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki's television series Marshall Piłsudski (eight one-hour episodes, 2001). International audiences watched him in episodic roles in Krzysztof Kieslowski's films: as head of the examining board in A Short Film about Killing (1988) and as a Communist apparatchik in Blind Chance (1981/1987).

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof