Jakubowska, Wanda

(1907-1998)

   In film criticism Jakubows-ka's name is almost exclusively associated with The Last Stage (Ostatni etap, 1948), which shows the monstrosity of Auschwitz, despite the fact that she directed thirteen feature films and her career spanned almost fifty years. In The Last Stage, the mother of all Holocaust films, she depicted her firsthand experiences at Auschwitz (in 1942 she spent six months in the infamous Pawiak prison in Warsaw and then was incarcerated in Ravensbriick and the women's concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau until 18 January 1945). This film also marked the birth of the post-1945 Polish cinema and was received as such after its much-anticipated premiere.

   Jakubowska became the cofounder of START in 1935 and finished her first film, On the Niemen River (Nad Niemnem, 1939), shortly before the war (it was never seen—all of the film's prints were destroyed during the war). The silence over Jakubowska's films produced after The Last Stage has to do largely with her staunch involvement with the Communist ideology, which resulted in several painfully didactic and propagandist films promoting the Communist cause. Some of Jakubowska's films, such as The Soldier of Victory (Żołnierz zwycięstwa, 1953), belong among classic examples of blatant Communist propaganda in Poland—praised and awarded immediately after their release and objects of ridicule for contemporary audiences. Of critical interest are Jakubowska's returns to her camp experiences in later films. In Meetings in the Twilight (Spotkania w mroku, 1960), she develops a contemporary story with references to the war—a Polish pianist performing in West Germany remembers her imprisonment in a labor camp. The same themes are present in The End of Our World (Koniec naszego świata, 1964), the film she considered her best, and Invitation (Zaproszenie, 1985). Both films, rarely seen and virtually ignored in discussions on the filmic representation of the Nazi Holocaust, are set in the present and rely on the flashback structure to tell the story of Auschwitz. Jakubowska was also a professor at the Łódź Film School (1949-1974) and the artistic director of film units ZAF (1948-1949) and Start (1955-1968).

   Other films: The Atlantic Story (Opowieść Atlantycka, 1954), Farewell to the Devil (Pozegnanie z diabłem, 1956), King Maciuś I (Król Maciuś I, children's film, 1958), A Modern Story (Historia współczesna, 1960), Hot Line (Gorąca linia, 1965), 150 Per Hour (150 na godzinę, 1971), White Mazurka (Biały mazur, 1978), The Colors of Love (Kolory kochania, 1988).

   See also Socialist Realist Cinema.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof