Janusz Zaorski

Directing

Janusz Zaorski

Born 1947-09-19

Janusz Zaorski (born 19 September 1947) is a Polish film director, scenarist and actor, representative of the cinema of moral anxiety (Polish: kino moralnego niepokoju), trend in Polish cinema. Zaorski has directed mainly psychological dramas, comedies and TV series. Zaorski graduated National Film School in Łódź in 1969. He made his own individual film director debut in 1970. In 1987 Zaorski was selected as a chairman of the Polish Federation of Film Societies (Polska Federacja Dyskusyjnych Klubów Filmowych). He was also an art director of the Film Group "Dom" (since 1988), member of the Cinematography Committee (1987–1989), president of the Radio & Television Committee (1991–1992), president of The National Council of Radio Broadcasting and Television (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji; 1994–1995), member of the European Film Academy.

Acting credits

Night Silence poster
4.7

A theatre actor whose health is failing gets admitted to a nursing home. Soon, he starts having nightmares that seemingly become deceptively real. The so-called nightmares were able to make him live in two parallel dimensions.

Night Silence

2024

Screen Tests poster
6.1

Three-part film centered around a film being made by a group of young directors. In the first a working-class girl finishes school and has her first love affair, which ends badly. In the second a provincial boy with dreams of life in the theater has an affair with his boss' wife. They meet during the film's screen tests.

Screen Tests

1977

Hacker poster
4.3

Two friends make a bet. One of them - an A student and a computer genius Marcin - under the terms of the dispute must be received five days of complete submission to his clever friend Turbo - and he, in turn, guarantees him the easy money and attention to a long-legged beauty.

Hacker

2002

Man of Iron poster
7.0

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

1981

Soccer Poker poster
7.2

Laguna was once a great soccer player whose career was interrupted by an injury. He spent years climbing the ranks to become an international referee. He sees the prevailing arrangements, manipulations, and bribery around him. Now desperate, he decides to stage an extraordinary culmination of his career: he wants to create a so-called "miracle Sunday" by "printing" the final round of games - taking substantial bribes from the interested clubs and manipulating the matches so that the results align in the order he set up.

Soccer Poker

1989

Escape to the Silver Globe poster
7.2

A documentary project about what the filmmakers claim to be the greatest, unfulfilled dream of Polish cinema, the 1970s science fiction epic "On the Silver Globe".

Escape to the Silver Globe

2021

E=mc² poster
6.2

The film tells about mainly three people - Max, a bored, smart, poor University Professor of Philosophy; Ramzes, a mafia leader, cool, strong, merciless bully and Stella, Ramzes girlfriend.

E=mc²

2002

Panny i wdowy poster
5.8

Maidens and Widows is an epic tale of a hundred years of Polish history from the perspective of women, the titular maidens and widows. Set against the backdrop of turbulent historical events.

Panny i wdowy

1991

God's Finger poster
6.3

A young man from the countryside fights against all odds to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor.

God's Finger

1973

The Smaller Sky poster
7.0

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.

The Smaller Sky

1981

No artwork available
8.0

Two neighbours living in one block of flats share the same dreams at night - they murder each another.

Goodnight

1971

Behind the camera

Siberian Exile poster
4.1

An epic tale of Poles, Ukrainians, Jews who are deported to Russia. Their fate is shown from the perspective of a young boy Staszek, who goes to Siberia with his family and neighbors from a small village in the eastern Polish borderlands. Together with his companions he starts hard struggle for survival, where the most fearsome opponent turns out to be terrible, merciless nature... Circumstances force the boy to reevaluate his life and grow up faster. Soon he will have to learn the essential struggle for survival and make decisions that will where rate will be life of his relatives. He will also have to choose between love for the Jewish Zinnia and the Russian Luybka.

Siberian Exile

2013

Hacker poster
4.3

Two friends make a bet. One of them - an A student and a computer genius Marcin - under the terms of the dispute must be received five days of complete submission to his clever friend Turbo - and he, in turn, guarantees him the easy money and attention to a long-legged beauty.

Hacker

2002

Hacker poster
4.3

Two friends make a bet. One of them - an A student and a computer genius Marcin - under the terms of the dispute must be received five days of complete submission to his clever friend Turbo - and he, in turn, guarantees him the easy money and attention to a long-legged beauty.

Hacker

2002

Tree Doctor poster
NR

Szymon discovers a naked woman and takes her to his secluded house where, over the next few days, she tells contradictory stories about her life. But it turns out she is not the only person in the house with something to hide.

Tree Doctor

2005

Tree Doctor poster
NR

Szymon discovers a naked woman and takes her to his secluded house where, over the next few days, she tells contradictory stories about her life. But it turns out she is not the only person in the house with something to hide.

Tree Doctor

2005

Lazarus' Whims poster
10.0

Jacenty is nearing the end of his days. However, he wants to go on his own terms, bargaining until the very end.

Lazarus' Whims

1973

No artwork available
NR

Mary accidentally discovers a mermaid drawn on the wall of her small apartment in Warsaw. It turns out it was drawn by Pablo Picasso during his visit in 1948! She's thrilled, but she doesn't realize the mermaid will turn her life upside down.

Picasso's Mermaid

2026

Childish Questions poster
8.1

A young architect is locked up in prison. He recalls his uncompromising youth and gradual sliding into the moral swamp of compromises. He was not alone. A group of his friends, dreamers and glass house builders, accompanied him.

Childish Questions

1981

Baryton poster
8.0

A famous opera singer comes to his hometown in Poland, where he loses his voice.

Baryton

1985

No artwork available
8.0

Maria, a veteran architect heading a design studio, finally secures approval for a long-awaited bearing factory project, but now faces a two-year deadline and staff eager for bonuses. She insists on a meticulously accurate plan that will delay opening yet save millions, drawing ire from her team and superiors who urge her to relent or take leave. When the industrial union ultimately backs her vision but replaces her as project lead, Maria rejoins the team as a regular member, steadfastly pursuing her principles while navigating the personal cost of her professional convictions.

Overdue Vacation

1979

No artwork available
7.0

A deserter returns to his hometown and, with the help of his father, hides in the mountains.

Do domu

1990

No artwork available
7.0

A deserter returns to his hometown and, with the help of his father, hides in the mountains.

Do domu

1990

Soccer Poker poster
7.2

Laguna was once a great soccer player whose career was interrupted by an injury. He spent years climbing the ranks to become an international referee. He sees the prevailing arrangements, manipulations, and bribery around him. Now desperate, he decides to stage an extraordinary culmination of his career: he wants to create a so-called "miracle Sunday" by "printing" the final round of games - taking substantial bribes from the interested clubs and manipulating the matches so that the results align in the order he set up.

Soccer Poker

1989

Happy New York poster
5.8

The story of six Polish emigrants living in New York City, who try to live their American Dream and cope with the realities of the Big Apple.

Happy New York

1997

Happy New York poster
5.8

The story of six Polish emigrants living in New York City, who try to live their American Dream and cope with the realities of the Big Apple.

Happy New York

1997

The Mother of the Kings poster
6.3

In difficult times of political and social change, a mother raises four sons alone.

The Mother of the Kings

1987

The Mother of the Kings poster
6.3

In difficult times of political and social change, a mother raises four sons alone.

The Mother of the Kings

1987

Pokolenia poster
NR

The history of Poland told through fragments of movies produced by Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych.

Pokolenia

2017

Pokolenia poster
NR

The history of Poland told through fragments of movies produced by Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych.

Pokolenia

2017

Promotion poster
7.0

After getting a university degree, Marek Grzyb comes back to his village and does his best to convince the people to modernize.

Promotion

1975

A Partite for a Woodwind Instrument poster
10.0

The owner of sawmill receives a order from a german lieutenant to make forty gallows

A Partite for a Woodwind Instrument

1976

A Partite for a Woodwind Instrument poster
10.0

The owner of sawmill receives a order from a german lieutenant to make forty gallows

A Partite for a Woodwind Instrument

1976

No artwork available
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Goryl, czyli ostatnie zadanie...

1989

Uciec jak najbliżej poster
9.0

A young man meets and falls in love with a woman met on a business trip.

Uciec jak najbliżej

1972