Kazimierz Kutz, born in 1929, is a director and scriptwriter working in film, television, and theater. A graduate of the Lodz Film School in 1954, he was assistant director on Andrzej Wajda's A Generation in 1955, Jerzy Kawalerowicz's The Shadow in 1956, and Wajda's Canal in 1957. Although a native of the culturally distinct, heavily industrial mining region of Upper Silesia, in many respects the Wales of Poland, Kutz was reluctant at first to make films with local themes. As part of the " Polish School "generation, he experienced war as an adolescent, which accelerated his maturation. Kutz's early films are very much to do with World War II and their effect on the Polish psyche. But Kutz is most famous for his piercing trilogy about the Silesian experience, focusing mainly on the struggles of striking miners and other workers. The trilogy comprising The Salt of the Black Land (1970), The Pearl in the Crown (1972), and Death as a Slice of Bread (1995) forms one of the most remarkable documents of history and community to emerge from post-war European cinema. Imprisoned in 1981 under Martial Law, he was elected Senator from his native Upper Silesia in 2001 and subsequently elected Vice-Speaker of the Senat. A long and distinguished career as a theater director evolved in tandem with his work in film, with productions in virtually all of Poland's most venerable theaters, including a long association with the Stary Teatr in Cracow, where he first directed Damy i Huzary in 2001. At the same time, with increasing frequency the prolific director has been doing television theater, a popular form in Poland. A more extensive biography of Kazimierz Kutz in Polish can be found HERE.
