POLISH FILM ACADEMY

Real name – Henryk Szapiro. director, writer, artist of the pre-war cinema. Born in 1900 in Warsaw. He studied at the Institute of Engineers of Communication (communication engineering degree) in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), and the local school at the National Theatre. He had worked as an assistant to prominent Russian directors – Meyerhold and Arbatov, before he started directing on his own. In 1923, he moved to Berlin, where he was associated with the famous cabaret of Russian emigrants Blue Bird (Sinajana ptica). A year later, he came to perform in Poland and decided to stay. He settled in Warsaw, where he briefly co-operated with the Stanczyk cabaret, directing two acclaimed one-act plays by Nikolai Yevreinov. In 1925, he made his debut film One of the 36 (Lamed Vov) devoted to Jewish themes and alluding to the Talmudic legend of the eponymous 36 nameless righteous, taking on themselves the sins of the mundane world. The film was highly praised, but unfortunately it did not survive to the present day. Szaro’s subsequent works were devoted to the present (Czerwony błazen/Red Clown from 1926, Zew morza/Call of the Sea – 1927, Kłamstwo Krystyny/Christine’s Lie – 1939) or were adaptations of famous novels and stage works (Przedwiośnie/Early Spring and Dzikuska/The Savage – 1928, Mocny człowiek/A Strong Man – 1929, Dzieje grzechu/The Story of Sin – 1933, Ordynat Michorowski/Count Michorowski and Trójka hultajska/Three Rascals – 1937). He also directed two patriotic films: Na Sybir/To Siberia (1930) and 1914 (1932). He returned to Jewish themes in Ślubowanie/The Vow (1937), shot in Yiddish.

He was one of the most talented and respected directors of the pre-war cinema. In 1927, he co-founded the Polish Association of Film Producers, and in 1936, he founded the Association of Filmmakers and Film Technicians. He was an honorary member of the French Union des Artistes Cinematographiques in Nice. After the war, he fled to Vilna, from where he returned in 1942. He died in the ghetto several months later, shot in the liquidation operation (June or August 1942).