POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Director, screenwriter. She was born on October 14, 1936, in Łódź. She studied in her hometown at the Directing Department of the State Film School (1958, diploma in 1975). For several years, she worked as an assistant to renowned directors, including Wojciech Has (Pamiętnik znaleziony w Saragossie/The Saragossa Diary), Jerzy Skolimowski (Bariera/Barrier, Ręce do góry/Hands Up), Jerzy Hoffman (Trzy kroki po ziemi/Three Steps On The Ground), Andrzej Wajda (Samson). She made her debut in 1972, with a television film titled Ostatni liść/The Last Leaf. Next, she adapted Iwaszkiewicz’s short story Dziewczyna i gołębie/The Girl And Pigeons (1973, TV). She was also one of the young directors whose novellas were included in the film Pictures from Life (1975, novella Literat/The Writer). Three years later, she made another TV film, Wejście w nurt/Going in the Stream (1978), written by Ireneusz Iredyński. Since then, she has been writing her own films herself.

Her first feature film was Bez miłości/Without Love (1980) – a psychological drama with an outstanding performance by Dorota Stalińska, awarded at the Polish Film Festival in Gdansk; other honours for this film include the best director award and the FIPRESCI award at the festival in Mannheim. Stalińska also starred in her next two films: Debiutantka/Debutante (1981) and Krzyk/Scream (1982, award for best female performance and best director at the festival in San Sebastian) – a dark psychological drama, which concluded her trilogy of films featuring strong contemporary women. In 1990, Sass made Historia niemoralna/Immoral Story, in which she portrayed her collaboration with the actress. Later, in 1985, she adapted two novels by Pola Gojawiczyńska: Dziewczęta z Nowolipek/The Girls of Nowolipki and Rajska jabłoń/The Paradise Apple, proving her excellent skills at portraying women. Anna Dymna played an alcoholic in her next film, Tylko strach/Only Fear (1993) and was the winner of the best actress award at the festival in Gdynia; Magdalena Cielecka created a remarkable portrayal of a nun in Pokuszenie/Temptation (1995, award for best actress at the festival in Gdynia, Tokyo and Geneva, a FIPRESCI Award at the film festival in Karlovy Vary). Cielecka also played the character inspired by the poet Halina Poświatowska in Jak narkotyk/Like A Drug (1999). Sass also dabbled in comedy – Pajęczarki (1993).

In the 1990s, Sass turned to television dramas (Siostrzyczki/The Sisters, Katarzyna, Noc Helvera/Helver’s Night) and theatre. She has worked with theatres in Krakow, Gdansk and Łódź, where she directed a number of plays (Two for the Seesaw, Tutam, Luv, Electra). She received prestigious theatre awards for her adaptations of Three Sisters by Chekhov and Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Later, she worked with Warsaw’s Ateneum theatre.

She returned to feature film in 2011, directing W imieniu diabła/On Behalf of the Devil – a story inspired by the rebellion of nuns in Kazimierz Dolny against the church hierarchy.

She also uses the name Barbara Sass-Zdort (she is married to Wiesław Zdort, the cinematographer).