WFO Film Studio in Łódź was established on December 29, 1949. This year, it celebrates its 75th anniversary of uninterrupted creative pursuit. There are few film institutions in Poland with such a longstanding legacy and rich body of work. WFO has produced an impressive number of nearly 5,000 films, garnering over 1,200 festival awards. Nature documentaries have become the hallmark of their output, supported by the production of art films focusing on innovative and artistically ambitious ideas. WFO’s openness to newcomers has allowed many masters of Polish cinema to start their illustrious careers there, including: Wojciech Jerzy Has, Krzysztof Zanussi, Krzysztof Komeda, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Wojciech Wiszniewski, Bogdan Dziworski, Piotr Szulkin, Andrzej Barański, Juliusz Machulski, Krzysztof Ptak, Piotr Sobociński, Jacek Bławut, Marek Koterski, Jan Jakub Kolski, and Maciej Drygas.
Today, WFO Film Studio continues to produce thought-provoking films and is constantly expanding its digitalization and restoration line for audiovisual materials. As part of its ongoing modernization efforts, a unique classic animation studio for 35 mm film has been launched, and a professional film studio is also being developed. WFO conducts film education workshops and is the main organizer of the renowned Włodzimierz Puchalski International Nature Film Festival. The Studio’s significant artistic achievements and contributions to national culture were recognized in 2014 by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, who awarded the institution with the Bronze Gloria Artis Medal for Merit to Culture.
THE ARENA OF LIFE
A documentary film about the life of a circus. An in-depth look at circus performers during a show, focused primarily on the faces of the performers, reflecting the state of concentration, tension and emotions that accompany the artists during a public show. The consolidation of this special professional and social group is expressively highlighted not only during the making of the film, but also beyond it. Observation of the artists during a traditional banquet confirms that for these people circus art is the essence of life.
Original title: Arena życia
Director: Bogdan Dziworski
Cinematographers: Wit Dąbal, Ryszard Lenczewski, Krzysztof Ptak, Piotr Sobociński
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1979
COMPUTERS
How does a computer work? It’s easy! This educational film vividly explains the principles of the binary system, which is the underlying operating concept for digital machines. Featuring Marek Piwowski as tutor. The conclusion is optimistic: in case of an emergency, you can always break the glass with an old-fashioned wooden abacus behind it...
Original title: Komputery
Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
Cinematographer: Stanisław Śliskowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1967
THE CRASH
A film with moralistic overtones, featuring music by Krzysztof Komeda. A young couple goes for a car ride. As a result of reckless driving, they have a car crash. The girl finds herself in the hospital...
Original title: Kraksa
Director: Edward Etler
Cinematographer: Stanisław Śliskowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1963
THE CROSS AND THE AXE
A documentary that reflects on the Ossoliński castle in Ujazd. This once magnificent palace, built in the 17th century, is now just a ruin hidden among the fields and hills of the Opatów Land. The badly damaged building that was erected thanks to Krzysztof Ossoliński includes extensive fortifications: bastions, a moat, as well as traces of fortifications and bridges. The name of the monument, Krzysztopór, derives from the name of its founder. The name has evolved. The cross is a symbol of faith and politics of the ruler of the land, while the axe is the coat of arms of the Ossoliński family. Both symbols can be found on the entrance gate to the palace.
Original title: Krzyż i topór
Director: Bogdan Dziworski
Cinematographer: Bogdan Dziworski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1972
THE FAINT CLATTER OF BIRDS
The film is the story of a Polish nature film pioneer embarking on his last journey. The hero, immensely in love with nature, has been documenting its beauty for nearly half a century. His life’s work includes thousands of metres of film reels. The director, Franciszek Berbeka, tells the story of the remarkable passion of Włodzimierz Puchalski and the price he had to pay for pursuing it.
Original title: Niewyraźny klekot ptaków
Director: Franciszek Berbeka
Cinematographers: Seweryn Bącała, Jarosław Brzozowski, Janusz Czecz, Włodzimierz Puchalski, Ryszard Wyrzykowski, Stefan Żółtowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 2024
A FEW STORIES ABOUT MAN
An unusual film with an unusual protagonist – a man missing both of his arms, who yet does almost all of his daily activities independently. We watch how Jerzy Orłowski not only skilfully handles a door key or lights a cigarette, but also skis, swims and draws quite well – with genuine artistry. All this is depicted without a single word, solely with evocative images that are accompanied only by occasional sound effects and the whistling of the protagonist. This restrained yet moving film portrayal by Bogdan Dziworski, with excellent cinematography by Krzysztof Ptak, has been awarded many prestigious prizes.
Original title: Kilka opowieści o człowieku
Director: Bogdan Dziworski
Cinematographer: Krzysztof Ptak
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1983
GLORY TO MR. BULL
A film about the work of Franciszek Starowieyski, one of the most eminent Polish artists, who was a painter, stage designer, graphic artist, creator of the drawing theatre. The film’s protagonist gained popularity in the 1960s as an author of theatre and film posters. Andrzej Papuziński, using unusual visual solutions and staging effects, reveals the artist’s creative process, depicting him in his studio. The title of the film refers to the pseudonym that the artist used as a response to objections to the family spelling of his aristocratic surname. The author thus invented a ‘folk’ pseudonym and signed his works simply as “Jan Bull” (Polish: “Jan Byk”).
Original title: Bykowi chwała
Director: Andrzej Papuziński
Cinematographer: Stanisław Śliskowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1971
THE INDEPENDENT PEASANT
A film portrait of Władysław Szypuła, a farmer from the village of Sołonka in the Rzeszów region, who is a man with a specific philosophy of life. Here he is, at the end of the 20th century, cultivating the land solely with his own muscles, with self-made tools, “independent” of the general economic and market climate. Although his life passes in toil and hardship, he is full of inner peace and kindness to others. The monologue about his life to date, his plans and dreams are accompanied by Szypuła’s poems, in which he raises many current issues and writes about the situation of the Polish countryside.
Original title: Chłop niezależny
Director: Zygmunt Skonieczny
Cinematographer: Stanisław Śliskowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1982
THE OLYMPICS
One of Bogdan Dziworski’s most awarded films about sport, made at the WFO Film Studio. As in the other films of the series, the inquisitive camera reveals the dark backstage of sporting contests – this time using the example of children’s training and skiing competitions in Zakopane. The youngest competitors, fiercely cheered on by feverish adults, seem lost and frightened in the incomprehensible for them, far from ‘childplay’ atmosphere of the fierce competition fuelled by their parents and guardians.
Original title: Olimpiada
Director: Bogdan Dziworski
Cinematographers: Wit Dąbal, Bogdan Dziworski, Ryszard Lenczewski, Krzysztof Ptak
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1978
PLAYING ADULTS
Kindergarten children are very adept at imitating adults, picking up on their manner of behaving and speaking, their foibles and weaknesses. They repeat conversations they have heard at home and recreate scenes from adult life: weddings, discussions over a beer and family quarrels. The film observes the family play, in which the adult world can be seen through a distorting mirror.
Original title: Zabawa w dorosłych
Director: Jadwiga Żukowska
Cinematographer: Stanisław Śliskowski
Production: WFO Film Studio
Country and year: Poland, 1966
