BOROWCZYK, WALERIAN

(1923-2006)

   One of the most prominent Polish makers of short animated films, also known for his live-action films made in France and Poland. After graduating from the weekly periodical. Apart from propagandist films, mostly documenting the implementation of the Communist system on Polish soil, Bossak produced a number of classic documentary works, mainly dealing with World War II and the postwar reconstruction. Among them are Holocaust classics, such as Majdanek: The Cemetery of Europe (Majdanek, cmentarzysko Europy (1944, with Aleksander Ford) and Requiem for 500,000 (Requiem dla 500 000, 1963, with Wacław Kaźmierczak); war documentaries, for example, The Battle of Kolberg (Bitwa o Kołobrzeg, 1945); and documentaries about the reconstruction, such as The Return to the Old Town (Powrót na Stare Miasto, 1954). His documentary film The Flood (Powódź, 1947, co-directed with Wacław Kaźmierczak) received the main award at the Cannes Film Festival.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof