Janusz Morgenstern

Entanglement

A member of a therapy group is found dead. A prosecutor and a police officer try to solve the mystery of his death.

Release Date2011-06-03

Charactersd Professor Andrzej Zieleniecki

Vote Count18

Polish School

The documentary talks about the origins, development and achievements of the Polish film school. People from the environment of the "Filmówka" in Łódź, among others. Wanda Jakubowska, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Antoni Bohdziewicz, Janusz Morgenstern or Kazimierz Kutz. The film is richly illustrated with archival materials and the first films of the school. The beginnings of the Łódź Film Festival begin in Krakow with the Young Film Workshop; On May 6, 1945, at Józefitów 16 production facility of the Polish Film Production Company, an inaugural meeting is held. After numerous transformations, in July 1946 the Young Film Workshop and the Film Training Course began activities, which can be considered as the beginning of state film education in post-war Poland. The later fate of the school is already connected with Łódź; July 16, 1948, the act of establishing the Film School was signed.

Release Date1997-01-01

Charactersd Self

Kuba

Janusz Morgenstern was a director of films and TV series that left a permanent mark on Polish cinema, such as ‘Good Bye, Till Tomorrow’, ‘To Kill This Love’ or ‘More Than Life at Stake’. Morgenstern’s portrait is woven out of broadcasts, photos, interviews with his loved ones and his own films.

Release Date2024-05-26

Charactersd Self (archive footage)

Knife in the Water: A Ticket to the West

Release Date2003-08-01

Charactersd Self

More Than Life At Stake

A series about the adventures of a Polish secret agent, Hans Kloss, who acts as a double agent in the Abwehr during Second World War in occupied Poland.

Release Date1968-10-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count9

Vote Count28

The World Is Waiting for Us

The film shows the gray reality of a Polish unemployed slacker still living (despite 30 on the neck) "on mommy's pot". Just what to do when one day she runs out? Where to get money for living?

Release Date2006-04-07

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count6

Polskie drogi

An epic, multi-threaded story about the fate of Poles during World War II. "Czas pogardy" was shown primarily from the perspective of two main characters - Lieutenant Władysław Niwiński and Leon Kuraś - a petty crook, but not without heroic traits. The authors of the series sought to show, in particular, everyday life under Nazi occupation in Poland.

Release Date1977-10-16

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator

Vote Count4

The Yellow Scarf

The main character - a man who suffers from alcoholism - wants to change his tumultuous life. The day before Christmas Eve he receives a gift from his son - a yellow scarf. A gift is a kind of talisman he receives from loved ones, and every time he loses it. When after another banquet he falls into delirium, his ex-wife and secretary bring him to his mother. She helps him to sober up and arranges holiday celebration for two of them. She gives her son another yellow scarf, in belief that it will help him break the pernicious habit.

Release Date2000-12-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count25

Europa Europa

A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.

Release Date1990-11-14

DepartmentProduction

JobLine Producer

Vote Count270

St. Barbara's Day

A coal mine director invites Jacob, a TV series star, to add splendor to the celebration of St. Barbara's Day, the patroness of miners. Basia, a worker from the sorting department, is chosen to hand Jakub the welcoming loaf of bread. The two completely different worlds come together: flashy, success oriented strangers from Warsaw and traditional, modest and unwilling to change Silesians.

Release Date2005-12-04

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count3

All The Saints

As every year, the celebration of All Saints Day brings Polish families together at the graves of their loved ones. On this special day Maria, 80-year-old widow, visits the graveyard with her son, his wife and their children.

Release Date2002-11-01

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count5

Atlantic Story

The fate of a German found by the French peasants - a deserter from the Legion of Foreign Affairs fighting in Vietnam.

Release Date1955-04-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobAssistant Director

Opening Tomorrow

A budding playwright is thrilled to find out that his play will be performed at a prestigious theater, but a series of problems pile up, along with the general feeling that opening night will be disastrous.

Release Date1962-04-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

Lesser Evil

There is a writer who in the late 1970s managed to publish a poem in the monthly "Nowy Wyraz". It was enough to become a self-confessed writer whose name began to appear in the state media. The writer takes full advantage of his privileges - he flirts with power, sympathizes with the opposition, and collapses his studies at the same time. He is saved from going to the army by an exalted essayist whose sister is the head of the psychiatric hospital in Tworki. In a psychiatric institution, a writer meets a schizophrenic who writes a novel. After his suicide, the protagonist takes over the draft, which he publishes outside of censorship under his name, thanks to which he gains fame, fame and money. August '80 breaks out....

Release Date2009-10-23

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count10

Jowita

Marek is a promising athlete having his share of affairs with women. One day at masquerade ball he meets a an enigmatic Jowita and becomes obsessed with her, even when he finds seemingly true love in Agnieszka.

Release Date1967-09-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count13

Colossus

A boy paralyzed as a child grows into an athletic man. The colossal strength that allowed him to become a fit man will prove to be his undoing. Convicted of a murder in a fight, he loses the chance to return to his beloved girl.

Release Date1993-09-24

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count1

Big Love

Emilka meets the slightly-older Maciek out at a club one night. He shows Emilka—who was brought up by a single mom—a whole new world filled with desire, passion, restlessness and rebellion. The girl moves in with him and at first everything seems just perfect, but gradually Emilka discovers her separate identity, and starts to grow apart from him. When her dream of becoming a singer comes true, Maciek feels threatened. A toxic love game begins, full of lust and jealousy.

Release Date2012-02-10

DepartmentCrew

JobIn Memory Of

Vote Count24

Ixjana

Marek, a young writer, is trying to solve the mystery of the night his friend Arthur died. In the recesses of his memory, Marek finds fragments of past events: a party at the home of an eccentric publisher, his argument with Arthur, the exchange of blows, blood. Afraid that he has killed his friend, Marek suppresses his feelings of fear and guilt in his passionate meetings with a woman who has more to do with Arthur’s disappearance than it seems...

Release Date2012-11-23

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count3

The Revenge

A winter day at a Polish castle, half owned by a fatalistic notary and half by a volcanic old soldier's niece. The old soldier, Cupbearer, and the notary are sworn enemies, which may doom the love between the niece, Klara, and the notary's son, Waclaw. On this day, the tongue-tied Cupbearer asks a braggart courtier, Papkin, to sue on his behalf for the hand of the widow Hanna. Papkin succeeds and

Release Date2002-10-04

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count35

Korczak

The story of Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war.

Release Date1990-05-06

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count30

The Big Animal

When the circus leaves town, Zygmunt and Marysia unwittingly adopt a camel into their home. The couple quickly forms a close bond with the nameless camel, but as the bond grows stronger, their neighbors slowly begin to ostracize them.

Release Date2000-08-25

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count26

Rose

This harrowing tale of survival centers on Rose, a Masurian woman, whose German soldier husband was killed in the war, leaving her alone on their farm. A single woman had no defense against Russian soldiers who raped as a form of revenge, nor against plundering Poles who found themselves in desperate straits. Help arrives for Rose in the form of Tadeusz, a former officer in the Polish Home Army who deserted after he saw his wife raped and murdered by Russian troops and is attempting to hide his identity.

Release Date2012-02-03

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count66

Ashes and Diamonds

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

Release Date1958-10-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobFirst Assistant Director

Vote Count261

Came the Uhlans

In a post-State gmina Osiek, on August 15th the plaque commemorating the liberation of the town from the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1920 will be unveiled. Vogt wants the event to be festive and to contribute to the promotion a the forgotten gmina. He needs a veteran, but where will he find a veteran of the 1920 war? Marian, a village shopkeeper, promises to “find” a veteran in excha

Release Date2006-08-14

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count3

Femina

The main character is Bogna, a thirty year old woman lost in her surrounding reality and unhappy in her private life. After her husband departs for a foreign scholarship, Bogna learns that her mother died. The trip to her hometown for the funeral becomes a voyage in time, during which she relives the memories of her idyllic childhood.

Release Date1991-02-19

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count10

Kanal

In the last few days of the Warsaw Uprising during World War II, a modest group of Resistance members remains. The band must take refuge in the sewers under the orders of leader Zadra, but it's only a matter of time before they will have to emerge. However, when they try, they are met only with intense hostility from the Nazis. Despite their attempts stay resolute through immense mental strain, it becomes increasingly apparent that they may be doomed.

Release Date1957-04-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobAssistant Director

Vote Count149

Cud purymowy

A family of anti-Semites lives in Lodz. The husband is unemployed and poor. He believes that only true Poles can improve the situation in the country. His quiet wife believes what her husband does and says, while their son - the future of the nation - hates people who are different from himself. One day, the husband learns that his parents were Jewish. What's more, a distant relative from the US left behind a fortune to inherit. In order to get the money, the hero and his family must return to their roots. Their world is turned on its head...

Release Date2000-05-09

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count11

Był sobie dzieciak

During the brutal 1944 Warsaw Uprising, young poet Marek is forced to grow up in an instant as he joins the resistance amid the city’s desperate fight. When he meets a captivating woman, he must confront harsh choices.

Release Date2013-07-31

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count3

Colombuses

Kolumbowie follows a group of Polish resistance fighters during WWII in the days leading up to the Warsaw Rising.

Release Date1970-09-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count5

Vote Count1

White Dress

Careerist Maciej gives a lift to a hitchhiker with opposite beliefs as they both head to their hometowns. In the meantime, the local community gets prepared for the annual Corpus Christi procession.

Release Date2003-06-19

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count9

Then There Will Be Silence

Two Polish Army soldiers, both from different political backgrounds clash while fighting the Germans.

Release Date1966-01-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Deserter's Gold

"Deserter's Gold", the sequel to the very popular "The Deserters", is a rich war comedy, skipping humorously around the more serious dangers of a war. Deserters Gold takes place during World War II, while the first film happened during WWI. The heroes' mission is to rob a Nazi-run bank in Poland for gold that will buy military supplies for the Polish Underground.

Release Date1998-12-03

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count17

Boys Don't Cry

A young aspiring violinist unwittingly becomes involved with a criminal gang.

Release Date2000-02-25

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count152

Requiem

Bartłomiej, community elder and orator, must choose an appropriate successor, but finds difficulty in the aftermath of a local girl's tragic hit-and-run death. A community's pain reverberates through fractured relationships and the burden of funereal responsibility.

Release Date2001-10-12

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count1

The Collector

Lucjan Bohme is a ruthless debt collector working in a post-industrial Silesian town. In the land of unemployment and misery, he's got a lot of work and no mercy at all. Until something happens.

Release Date2005-09-14

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count40

Stary człowiek i pies

The film presents the story of Robert - an aging, once-recognized artist who is today struggling with his own complexes and vices, and helplessness towards a new reality that ruthlessly throws him to the margins of existence. One day Robert finds himself in a roadside ditch hit by a dog's car. In a reflex of spontaneous compassion, he takes the dog home and begins to look after him.

Release Date2008-11-20

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count3

Miss Nobody

A devout Catholic peasant girl is corrupted by two new friends when her family moves to the city. An allegory of traditional Polish values under threat from materialism and decadence in the post-Communist era.

Release Date1996-10-25

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count19

Golden Bottom

The film takes place today in a small settlement in Kolyma. A few years ago, the authorities decided that state gold mining was no longer profitable. Those who try to act on their own are persecuted.

Release Date1995-06-06

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count5

S.O.S.

Release Date1974-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count7

Good Bye, Till Tomorrow

Jacek is a handsome, charming young Pole who belongs to a drama company. One day, in the streets of Gdansk, he meets Marguerite, a beautiful, charming French girl. He falls for her but the young lady is whimsical...

Release Date1960-05-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count32

Legend of the White Horse

A satire of Cold war politics, where Red bureaucrats meet U.S. corporate greed - and a witch and a dragon.

Release Date1987-07-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

Queen of Clouds

Piotr manages to buy a splendid though dilapidated villa from the eccentric 80-year-old painter Mimi. The woman treats him like her long-lost only son whereas Piotr tries to send her away to old people's home.

Release Date2004-05-26

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count3

More Than Life At Stake Part Six

The sixth and final episode compilation of the TV series released theatrically, featuring episodes 16 and 17.

Release Date1969-10-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

To Kill This Love

A dramatization of problems faced by a young couple in 1970's Poland - job uncertainty, conflicts with parents, living together, unfaithfulness.

Release Date1972-12-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count9

Like Father Like Son

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.

Release Date2002-06-19

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count4

The Dark Side of Venus

Ewa is a beautiful, happily married woman. One day she meets a young woman claiming to be in affair with her husband. Ewa, shocked, doesn't know whom to believe any more.

Release Date1998-08-09

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count7

Long Weekend

Bogdan and Marta take part in a TV show 'Blind Date' and eventually win a romantic stay at the luxurious hotel for the long May Day weekend. They seem to be so different, however, that they hardly stand each other.

Release Date2004-05-03

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count3

Night of St. Nicholas

Two prison cellmates get a one-day leave out of jail to dress up as Santa Claus and an angel and give presents to children from an orphanage. But the presents don't seem to be for kids.

Release Date2000-12-06

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count7

Back to Life Again

Three idealists - a communist secretary, a former RAF pilot and a female political activist - need to face the hardships and accusations of postwar Stalinist years before being finally rehabilitated.

Release Date1965-03-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Lotna

Set in the beginning of Wold War II, when the Polish cavalry still fought with lances against German troops. LOTNA is about a white thoroughbred horse that passed through various hands in a military outfit.

Release Date1959-09-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobFirst Assistant Director

Vote Count11

Leprosy

When Stanisław Czermień is wrongfully accused of rape and murder, he decides to exonerate himself and track down the real criminal.

Release Date1971-12-02

DepartmentArt

JobSupervising Art Director

Vote Count1

More Than Life At Stake Part Four

The fourth of six episode compilations of the TV series, featuring episodes 8 and 9.

Release Date1969-10-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Heaven Hell

A young priest comes to a town to help the old provost in pastoral ministry. It early May, the parish prepares for the First Communion. Unexpectedly, the provost is admitted to hospital with a heart attack. Priest Piotr is on his own now in a completely new place. At a catechesis, one of the girls catches his attention. She’s sad, introvert and sometimes even aggressive. Marta is a daughter of the richest man in the town. During her confession, the priest feels she’s hiding something. When the time of Sacrament reception comes, Marta runs away from the altar. After hours of searching, priest Piotr finds her hidden in a vestry. The girl tells him the horrible truth.

Release Date2005-05-04

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count3

The Real End of the Great War

Róża marries a promising young architect, Juliusz. Then World War II breaks out and within weeks Juliusz is deported to a concentration camp. Months, and then years go by, until Róża abandons any hope that her husband might return. She meets and falls in love with another man, and tries to put her life back together, but one day, unexpectedly, Juliusz does return - a shattered, mere ghost of his former self, physically crippled and tormented by memories of the camps. First out of duty, then out of pity, Róża starts to care for him, but her feelings slowly are transformed into a kind of revulsion

Release Date1957-10-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobFirst Assistant Director

Vote Count4

Coyote's Morning

Kuba, a young cartoon artist who works as a waiter at sophisticated parties, falls in love with beautiful Noemi and accidentally gets involved in gangster affairs

Release Date2001-08-24

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count92

Godzina W

On August 1, 1944, Warsaw holds its breath as Home Army couriers spread word that “W-hour” is at 17:00. A platoon under “Czarny” must assault German barracks without the expected backup—an order they follow at the risk of collective suicide.

Release Date1979-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

More Than Life At Stake Part One

The first of six episode compilations of the TV show released theatrically, featuring episodes 1 and 3. In 1941, Polish soldier Stanisław Kolicki escapes German captivity only to be mistaken for the dashing Abwehr lieutenant Hans Kloss and recruited by the Soviets as their secret agent J-23. Under deep cover behind enemy lines, he feeds crucial intelligence to the Red Army while outwitting suspicions and dueling wits with the formidable SS officer Hermann Brunner.

Release Date1969-06-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Smaller Sky

A story of a dropout out of a succesful career and a loving family. He goes to a local railroad station, then checks into a hotel and refuses to leave despite visits by a psychiatrist and his own son. He watches people daily at the station. A tv reporter is trying to come up with a story which would help him to save his job. He likes to chase women and the dropout's wife is one of his targets. He gets interested in the story of her husband and tries to make a program about mysterious individual. Once the tv crew arrives to the scene, the subject tries to hide and ends up on the roof of the station, where he catches a glimpse of sunshine - the "smaller sky" - before stepping onto a glass roof and falling to his death.

Release Date1981-09-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

More Than Life At Stake Part Three

The third of six episode compilations of the TV series released theatrically, featuring episodes 5 and 7.

Release Date1969-06-26

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Love in an Underground Passage

Another film from the TV series "Polish Holidays", this time illustrating a holiday not entirely Polish, but already firmly rooted in the native reality - Valentine's Day. The script for it was written by Jerzy Pilch. For the famous writer, winner of the Nike Award, this is the second encounter with this cycle: earlier he wrote the script for the excellent "Yellow Scarf". His collaboration with director Janusz Majewski resulted in a story full of humor and charm, treating love with a slight wink of the eye and a touch of nostalgia. Wojciech Malajkat, who also played the main role, is a great merit.

Release Date2007-02-14

DepartmentProduction

JobExecutive Producer

Vote Count1

Ambulance

In this haunting short fiction film, a group of Jewish children and their teacher are herded into an ambulance by Nazis; the vehicle, ordinarily representing comfort and safety, becomes the group’s death chamber. Morgenstern’s presentation of the incident serves as a metaphor for the horror of the Holocaust, and provides a powerful trigger for discussion of the disturbing issues raised by the film. The figure of the children's’ teacher specifically parallels Janusz Korcak (1879-1942), a famous Jewish educator who ran an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto and died with his young charges at Treblinka.

Release Date1961-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Dama pikowa

A young engineer tries to get a card secret from a dying countess that allows him to make a fortune.

Release Date1972-08-30

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Adam's Two Ribs

An engineer comes home from abroad to his waiting wife. After some time, his second wife, an Italian one, joins him. For a small town, such a triangle will turn out to be unacceptable, especially since the spouses live peacefully under one roof.

Release Date1964-01-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2