Bugajski, Ryszard

(1943-)

   Director-writer, best known for his legendary 1982 film Interrogation (Przesłuchanie, released in 1989), describing the horror and brutality of the Stalinist system in Poland. The film narrates the story of the imprisonment and torture of an innocent young woman, played by Krystyna Janda, who is wrongly charged by the Stalinist secret police. This, arguably the most famous Polish film of the 1980s, was seen by viewers in Poland on illegal video copies. After the introduction of martial law in December 1981, Bugajski, unable to produce films in his own country, was forced to emigrate. In the mid-1980s he settled in Canada, where he later directed Clearcut (1991) and worked on some television films. Returning to Poland in the mid-1990s, Bugajski produced Players (Gracze, 1996), a political drama set during the first presidential elections after the fall of Communism. He also directed several television productions, plays, and television films, such as the crime miniseries Yes or Not (Tak czy nie, 2003).

   Other films: A Woman and a Woman (Kobieta i kobieta, 1979, codirected with Janusz Dymek), Class (Zajęcia dydaktyczne, TV, 1980), Like Father Like Son (W kogo ja się wrodziłem, TV, 2001).

   See also Stalinism-Representation.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof