Since last year, eminent documentary filmmakers Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz and Jacek Petrycki have been working on a story about a man whom Adam Michnik describes as ‘the most colourful personality of the democratic opposition between 1964 and 1989’.
This exceptionally complete portrayal of Jacek Kuroń is made ‘to comfort hearts’. The filmmakers look at our contemporary reality through the prism of the protagonist and his charisma, which so many people remember intensely.
“We want the viewer to find himself in the times in which Jacek Kuroń lived. He felt them and saw them,” say the directors. And they add: “We will bring out the deeper, human sense of his life choices and attitudes – the fight against hatred and the desire for revenge, the need for understanding, for building around common ideas.”
The film will feature interviews with people who worked with and were friends of Kuroń, including: Adam Michnik, Seweryn Blumsztajn, Helena Łuczywo, Anna Bikont, Ludwika Wujec, Andrzej Seweryn, Jan Rulewski or Adam Wajrak. They will be juxtaposed with archival materials, including the story of Jacek Kuroń himself and previously unpublished recordings by Marcel Łoziński and Jacek Petrycki.
The documentary is produced by NEXT FILM, co-produced by Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych i Fabularnych in Warsaw and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.
The documentary ‘Don’t burn the committees’ precedes the feature film about the lives of Jacek and Gajka Kuroni. The shooting of the film ‘Bez Ciebie mnie nie będzie. The life story of Jacek and Gajka Kuroni”, directed by Piotr Domalewski, will start soon.
The premieres of both films are scheduled for 2026 – the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the June events in Radom and Ursus and the creation of the Workers’ Defence Committee.
