2013 Honorary David Camera

Mr. Tadeusz Konwicki



2013 Honorary David Camera is awarded to Mr. Tadeusz Konwicki for his outstanding contribution into the film and literature through his memory about the world of Polish Jews.



TADEUSZ KONWICKI

is a great Polish writer and film director. Konwicki was born in 1926 in Nowa Wilejka near Wilno, where he spent his early childhood. His literary debut was in 1946 - he wrote and drew by himself: Szkice z Wybrzeża („Dziennika Polskiego”).
photo by Natalia Manilow
In the years 1952-1966 he was a member of 'Polish United Workers Party'. By the mid-1950s, Konwicki had become disillusioned by the communist regime in Poland and fell out of grace with the party. His later works (beginning with "A Hole in the Sky" (1959, Dziura w niebie), are mostly concerned with the author's childhood and the semi-mythical, romantic land of his youth.

At this time Konwicki became the head of the Kadr Film Studio and has since been recognized as one of the most notable members of the Polish Film School. However, his work veered away from the style pursued by his contemporaries, due to its uniquely bitter quality. As a filmmaker he is known for his Venice'58 Grand Prix winner "The Last Day of Summer" (Ostatni dzień lata, 1958), "All Souls Day" (Zaduszki, 1961), as well as for his masterpieces "Salto" (1962) and "How Far Away, How Near" (Jak daleko stad, jak blisko (1973), as well as film adaptations: of Nobel Prize Winner Czeslaw Milosz book "Dolina Issy" (1982), and of Adam Mickiewicz's epic poem "Dziady - Lawa" (1990) .

He is widely known for two novels, published by the Polish underground press: "The Polish Complex" (1977) and "A Minor Apocalypse" (1979). The latter work, a bitter satire about a washed-up writer who is asked to burn himself in front of the Soviet-built Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw, was subsequently adapted as the basis of a French film bearing the same title. "A Minor Apocalypse" is a post-Orwellian parody that refers to specific historical events, such as self-immolation protests against the communist regime by Ryszard Siwiec in Poland and Jan Palach in Czechoslovakia.

Mr. Konwicki currently lives in Warsaw and continues to inspire youth writers and filmmakers.

Filmography:

The Little Apocalypse - Writer (1993)
A Tale of Adam Mickiewicz's 'Forefathers' Eve' – Szkice z Wybrzeża (dodatek literacki do „Dziennika Polskiego”).
Kronika wypadków milosnych – Writer (1986)
Austeria – Writer (1982)
Valley of the Issa - Writer, Director, Himself (1982)
Jak daleko stad, jak blisko - Writer, Director (1972)
Jovita – Writer, Himself (1967)
Faraon - Writer (1966)
The Moment of Peace - Writer (segment "Matura") Director (segment "Matura"/"Abitur") (1965)
Salto - Writer, Director (1965)
Zaduszki - Writer, Director (1961)
Mother Joan of the Angels - Writer (1961)
Ostatni dzien lata – Writer, Director (1958)
Zimowy zmierzch – Writer (1957)
Kariera - Writer (1955)
Kurtyna (short) – Writer (1954)

source: http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0465461/filmoprod