Acting
Dec 17, 1952
Starachowice, Poland
Krystyna Janda
Acting
Biography
Krystyna Jolanta Janda (Polish: [krɨˈstɨ.na ˈjan.da]; born 18 December 1952) is a Polish film and theatre actress, director, and singer. She is best known internationally for playing leading roles in several films by Polish film director Andrzej Wajda, including Man of Marble (Człowiek z marmuru, 1976) and Man of Iron (Człowiek z żelaza, 1981). She is widely considered one of the most popular and successful Polish actresses of her generation and an icon of Polish cinema. In 1981, she played in the Academy Award-winning movie Mephisto. In 1982, she played the lead character in Ryszard Bugajski's film Przesłuchanie (Interrogation), which first premiered seven years later in 1989, following the collapse of communism. Despite the film's late release, she garnered international acclaim for her performance, including winning Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and Polish Film Festival in 1990. Janda is also known for her leading role in the second episode of Dekalog series of Krzysztof Kieślowski. In 2020, she won the Polish Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in drama film Dolce Fine Giornata. Her accolades and honours also include the Zbigniew Cybulski Award (1978), Gold Cross of Merit (1989), Gloria Artis Gold Medal for Merit to Culture (2005), Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2011), and Special Jury Award for Acting at the Sundance Film Festival (2019). Because of her prominent role in Polish culture, has been described as a "legend of Polish cinema and theatre" and a "national treasure". Description above from the Wikipedia article Krystyna Janda, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (70)
In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends disgruntled radio reporter Winkel to Gdańsk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers - particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an independent labour union leader whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.
Man of Iron
A young Polish filmmaker sets out to find out what happened to Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer who became a propaganda hero in the 1950s but later fell out of favor and disappeared.
Man of Marble
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
A Short Film About Killing
A German stage actor finds unexpected success and mixed blessings in the popularity of his performance in a Faustian play as the Nazis take power in pre-WWII Germany. As his associates and friends flee or are ground under by the Nazi terror, the popularity of his character supercedes his own existence until he finds that his best performance is keeping up appearances for his Nazi patrons.
Mephisto
A small group of cosmic explorers, including a woman, leaves Earth to start a new civilization. They do not realize that within themselves they carry the end of their own dream. They die one by one, while their children revert to a primitive native culture, creating new myths and a new god.
On the Silver Globe
Television & Series (14)
Polish drama series which follows the tragicomic adventures of a 40-year-old urban legend in Warsaw. He is a deeply complex character, an irresponsible party animal, a serial lothario and everyone’s friend at the same time. Behind the veneer he is tormented and self-loathing, trapped by his parents and shackled by the culture and the times that shaped him.
Still Here
Exploring one of the defining features of modern society, therapy, as seen through the eyes of a psychiatrist whose professional and personal life is on the verge of collapse.
In Treatment
Polish Fanfan, the first Polish series from the "cloak and dagger" - written about the "black cloud" in the press of the 70's. Axis of the plot became a dramatic episodes of the struggle for the maintenance of the Polish Prussia. They remained in feudal depending on the Republic from 1525, when Albrecht Hohenzollern secularized religious state and filed in Krakow tribute to the Polish king.
