Kazimierz Kutz

Kazimierz Kutz (2011)

Kazimierz Julian Kutz (born February 16, 1929 in Katowice - Szopienice , † December 18, 2018 ) was a Polish film and theater director, author and politician . His family name was written "Kuc" during the time of the People's Republic of Poland . He is considered one of the intellectual fathers of the Upper Silesian autonomy movement .

youth

The son of a railroad worker who took part in the Silesian uprisings from 1919 to 1921 on the part of the Polish associations , attended a German elementary school during the German occupation of Poland in World War II . At the age of 14 he was deported to the " Altreich " for forced labor .

Artistic creation

Movie

Under the name "Kuc" he studied directing from 1949 to 1954 at the Łódź Film School . In the last year of his studies he worked as an assistant director for Andrzej Wajda's film One Generation . He made his own directorial debut in 1959 with the film Krzyż walecznych ( Cross of Valor ). It was the prelude to 20 feature films , six of which deal with the history of his homeland, Upper Silesia . His main work is the Silesian Trilogy from the 1920s and 1930s , consisting of the films Sól ziemi czarnej ( Salt of the Black Earth , 1970), Perła w koronie ( The Pearl in the Crown , 1972) and Paciorki jednego różańca ( Like pearls in the rosary , 1979). The heroes of the three films are Upper Silesian miners who are pro-Polish. The Germans are represented schematically and rather negatively.

After the political change in 1989 he critically dealt with the communist past in several films. In Śmierć jak kromka chleba ( Death is like a slice of bread , 1994) he addressed the crackdown on a strike in the “Wujek” colliery at the beginning of martial law in Poland in December 1981. He took part in the comedy Pułkownik Kwiatkowski (Colonel Kwiatkowski, 1995) the communist-controlled state security service SB targeted.

theatre

Kutz has staged 20 plays, including the Warsaw National Theater ( Teatr Narodowy ) and the Old Theater ( Stary Teatr ) in Krakow . In addition, he has repeatedly directed “Theater on TV” ( Teatr Telewizji ), popular in Poland .

literature

In 1999 he published the autobiographical volume Klapsy i ścinki ("Klaps und Schnitzel"), in which he not only describes episodes from his own career, but also draws anecdotal portraits of contemporaries, including the composer Wojciech Kilar , the poet Tadeusz Różewicz and his own Professional colleagues Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi .

In 2010 he published the novel Piąta strona świata ("The fifth side of the world").

Kutz in 2006

Political activity

People's Republic of Poland until 1989

An essay published by Kutz on June 9, 1968 in the film magazine "Ekran", in which he complained about bureaucratic hurdles for the filmmakers, was used by the cultural department of the Workers' Party to attack the artistic elite in Warsaw. At that time, the party led a campaign mainly against Jewish intellectuals, Kutz was portrayed as their victim.

In the 1970s, he repeatedly took part in deliberations of the cultural department of the Central Committee of the PVAP. For his film Linia ( Line , 1975) he was awarded the High Order of the Rebirth of Poland . In 1976 he was appointed chief director of the Katowice studio of the state television broadcaster TVP .

But the authorities did not hide the fact that he was increasingly critical of the regime. From the mid-1970s it was systematically monitored by the SB . As an object of observation he was given the code name “Reżyser” (director). It was registered that Kutz contacted the Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR). In 1980 he joined the democracy movement around the Solidarność union . In 1981 he was one of the organizers of the 1st Congress of Polish Culture in Warsaw , which demanded freedom of art and an end to censorship . He was interned as an opponent of the regime under martial law. Thanks to the intercession of Katowice Bishop Herbert Bednorz, he was released after a week.

Republic of Poland since 1989

After the political change of 1989/90 he became director of the Katowice department of the TVP for one year. From 2000 to 2004 he headed the Cracow department of the state broadcaster.

In 1997 he was elected to the Senate for the first time as an independent candidate on the list of the liberally oriented Freedom Union. In 2001 he was re-elected and took over the office of Deputy Senate Marshal for this legislative period . He was also elected to the Senate in 2005. In the presidential election of the same year he was a member of the election committee of the social democratic candidate Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz . In the early parliamentary elections in 2007 , he won a Sejm mandate for the liberal-conservative Platforma Obywatelska (PO). But he left the PO parliamentary group in 2010 out of solidarity with MP Janusz Palikot , who founded his own left-wing liberal group. In 2011 he moved back to the Senate as an independent for the constituency of Katowice.

As a member of parliament, he was repeatedly echoed in the media with attacks on the Catholic Church and was therefore violently attacked by national Catholic circles. He campaigned for the rights of women and homosexual couples.

He repeatedly criticized Warsaw's policy towards his home region of Upper Silesia. He openly supported the Movement for the Autonomy of Silesia (RAŚ).

Kutz died in December 2018 at the age of 89. He was married three times and had two sons and two daughters.

Filmography as a director

• 1958: Cross of Valor (Krzyż Walecznych)
• 1960: Nobody calls (Nikt never woła)
• 1961: Ludzie z pociągu
• 1961: Tarpany - also screenplay
• 1963: The Silence (Milczenie) - also screenplay
• 1964: Upał
• 1966: who knows this woman? (Ktokolwiek like)
• 1967: Skok - also screenplay
• 1969: The Salt of the Black Earth (Sól ziemi czarnej) - also screenplay
• 1971: A pearl in a crown (Perła w koronie) - also dialogues
• 1975: Linia - also screenplay
• 1975: Znikąd donikąd
• 1979: Pearls of a Rosary (Paciorki jednego różańca) - also dialogues
• 1983: The password (Na Straży swej stać będę) - also dialogues
• 1986: Wkrótce nadejdą bracia - also screenplay
• 1993: Straszny sen Dzidziusia Górkiewicza
• 1994: Śmierć jak kromka chleba - also dialogues
• 1994: A turning neck (Zawrócony) - also dialogues
• 1995: Colonel Kwiatkowski's daring ruse (Pułkownik Kwiatkowski)
• 1997: Sława i Chwała

Web links

Commons : Kazimierz Kutz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kazimierz Kutz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Portrait on filmpolski.pl
• Overview of filmmaking (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Polish filmmaker Kazimierz Kutz died , Kulturnachrichten on Deutschlandfunk Kultur, published and accessed December 19, 2018
2. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. interia.pl, February 12, 2009.  
3. ↑ [2] Die Welt, April 12, 2011.
4. ↑ http://www.filmlandpolen.de/index.php?id=155
5. ^ [3] Die Welt , February 16, 2009.
6. ↑ [4]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. interia.pl, February 12, 2009.  
7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066323/
8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069078/
9. ^ [5] Die Welt, February 16, 2009.
10. ↑ http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/125975X
11. ^ [6] Gazeta Wyborcza (Lublin edition), April 29, 2013.
12. ↑ http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/111641
13. ↑ [7]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the publishing house Znak  
14. ↑ [8] Dziennik Zachodni, February 5, 2013.
15. ↑ Aleksandra Klich: Cały ten Kutz. Biografia niepokorna. Kraków 2009, p. 60.
16. ↑ [9] wiadomosci24.pl, February 16, 2009.
17. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) Internet Bulletin 
18. ↑ [10] Website of the National Cultural Center of the Republic of Poland (NCK)
19. ↑ http://www.katolicy.eu/PRL/Bednorz.htm
20. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) Internet Bulletin 
21. ↑ [11] Website of the Senate of the Republic of Poland (8th legislative period)
22. ↑ http://lewica.pl/index.php?id=3044
23. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Polska Times , October 8, 2010. 
24. ↑ [12] Website of the Senate of the Republic of Poland (8th legislative period)
25. ↑ [13] fronda.pl, February 26, 2012.
26. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. film.onet.pl, May 13, 2013. 
27. ↑ [14] Rzeczpospolita, August 21, 2011.
28. ↑ Directing legend and 'man of the people' politician Kazimierz Kutz dies , thefirstnews.com, December 18, 2018