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Ryszard Bugajski

Ryszard Bugajski

Directing

Biography

Ryszard Karol Bugajski (27 April 1943 – 7 June 2019) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He directed 23 films and television shows since 1972. His 1982 film Interrogation starring Krystyna Janda and Adam Ferency, described as "the most anti-Communist film in the history of Polish People's Republic" was entered into the 1990 Cannes Film Festival after being suppressed by the Polish communist authorities for several years.

Known For

The Twilight Zone
7.7

This 1980s revival of the classic sci-fi series features a similar style to the original anthology series. Each episode tells a tale (sometimes two or three) rooted in horror or suspense, often with a surprising twist at the end. Episodes usually feature elements of drama and comedy.

The Twilight Zone

1985
The Hitchhiker
6.3

A young hitchhiker introduces characters who are about to experience a frightening and sometimes supernatural incident of some kind in this moody anthology series.

The Hitchhiker

1983
Clearcut
6.9

A white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.

Clearcut

1991
Interrogation
7.1

In Stalinist Poland, cabaret singer Tonia decides to spend the evening drinking with a group of friends. The next morning, she awakes to find that, for reasons unknown to her, she has been jailed as a political prisoner. As prison officials interrogate, torture and humiliate her, she fights for survival and to maintain her innocence by refusing to sign a false confession. As her years of imprisonment pass, her relationship with her captors grows more complicated.

Interrogation

1989
VHS Revolution
6.3

Using testimonies by pioneers and witnesses of the times, delve into the feverish visual culture the media generated – with far-fetched examples of canine television games, seduction manuals, aerobics class while holding a baby, among others.

VHS Revolution

2017
Blindness
6.3

A little known episode from the life of Stalinist security police office Julia Brystiger. Her nickname Bloody Luna was a reference to her incredibly brutal methods of interrogation. In the early 1960s, she appears in a centre for the blind on the outskirts of Warsaw, a place often visited by Cardinal Wyszyński, whose imprisonment in 1953-1956 Brystiger supervised personally. During a difficult and heated discussion with the cardinal, Brystiger denounces the communist ideology and begs for forgiveness for her crimes and for guidance in her search for God.

Blindness

2016
Illumination
7.0

Film chronicles a decade in the life of a young physics student whose absolute faith in the primacy of rationality and science is shaken by tragedy and affairs of the heart.

Illumination

1973
General Nil
6.9

The tale about last years of the legendary Home Army commander, General August Emil Fieldorf "Nil".

General Nil

2009
No image
7.3

A 2005 novella film created to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement. It consists of 13 10-minute shorts. There are various forms: mini-feature, music video, documentary, animation, interview.

Solidarność, Solidarność...

2005
The Closed Circuit
6.4

The film is set in the Tricity in 2003, ten years after the end of communism in Poland. The plot, apparently based on the real-life experiences of Kraków businessmen Lech Jerzorny and Paweł Rey, is about three young, talented businessmen who open a high-tech factory. This comes to the attention of the local state ‘mafia’, the local Prosecutor, played by Janusz Gajos, and tax office boss, played by Kasimierz Kaczor, who are both jealous and would like to make money for themselves. We are in Poland, so success must be punished.

The Closed Circuit

2013
The Death of Captain Pilecki
5.8

Captain Witold Pilecki was a Polish intelligence officer during WWII who volunteered for a Polish resistance operation to get imprisoned in the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in order to gather intelligence and enable the Polish government-in-exile to inform the allies about the ongoing Holocaust in occupied Poland. The film also tells the story of Witold Pilecki’s fate at the hands of the Communist government after the end of WWII. The film is a reconstruction of the trial which took place in Warsaw during the communist regime in Poland. Captain Pilecki described his investigation as more cruel than his stay at Auschwitz.

The Death of Captain Pilecki

2006
Like Father Like Son
6.6

Television film from the "Polish Holidays" series was made according to his own script by Ryszard Bugajski, creator of the famous "Interrogation". A tragicomic tale of life, transience and destiny that one cannot escape. The story of three generations - grandfather, father and son are together again, but all three realize that it is not for long. A serious illness does not give up. However, this meeting arranged by the junior on the occasion of Father's Day will teach them a lot, will allow them to learn other values, overcome their barriers, understand the meaning of life, throw out deeply hidden regrets and grievances, strengthen family ties, resolve disputes, clear up past misunderstandings and disputes.

Like Father Like Son

2002
A Woman and a Woman
6.0

A story of a female production manager in a garment factory discovering that an award is being given to the wrong person on purpose. She stands up the injustice. Her best friend backs her up instead of the cultprit, the man she is living with. Later, the former production manager becomes a mayor in a resort town, where she in turn practices malfasance and is caught in the act by her friend.

A Woman and a Woman

1980
We Film the People!
N/A

The unique story of film directors who managed to critic the Communist regime while being produced by the State: this is Polish cinema's golden age, in the 1970s. Director Ania Szczepanska, born in Poland and raised in France, meets prominent filmmakers, producers, actors such as Andrzej WAJDA, Marcel LOZINSKI, Krzyszstof ZANUSSI, Kristina JANDA, Ryszard BUGAJSKI and confronts them the testimonies of the State men of that time. Through unknown archives, forgotten documentaries and excerpts of cult films, she relates how the Solidarnosc people ended up in Cannes.

We Film the People!

2013
Gracze
6.8

A political film with sensationalist plots, set during the 1990 presidential elections.The protagonist is Jan Gracz, a filmmaker, oppositionist, honest and noble man. When almost all the intelligentsia sides with Mazowiecki, he decides to head Walesa's presidential campaign. Meanwhile, the KGB plans an attempt on his life. The political game is mixed with sensationalism and eroticism.

Gracze

1995