Korczak is a 1990 black-and-white biographical Holocaust film directed by Andrzej Wajda and written by Agnieszka Holland, about the Polish-Jewish pediatrician and humanitarian Janusz Korczak. An international co-production between Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom, it stars Wojciech Pszoniak as Korczak, with Ewa Dałkowska, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, Marzena Trybala, Piotr Kozlowski, Zbigniew Zamachowski and Jan Peszek.
The film was screened outside of competition during the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Academy Awards in 1991, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Contents
Cast
Wojciech Pszoniak - Henryk Goldszmit (better known as Janusz Korczak)
Ewa Dałkowska - Stefania 'Stefa' Wilczynska
Teresa Budzisz-Krzyżanowska - Maryna Falska
Marzena Trybała - Estera
Piotr Kozłowski - Heniek
Zbigniew Zamachowski - Ichak Szulc
Jan Peszek - Max Bauer
Aleksander Bardini - Adam Czerniaków
Maria Chwalibóg - Czerniaków's wife
Andrzej Kopiczyński - director at Polish Radio
Krystyna Zachwatowicz - Szloma's mother
Zbigniew Suszyński - student
Jerzy Zass - German watchman on the bridge
Wojciech Klata - Szloma
Michał Staszczak - Józek
Agnieszka Krukówna - Ewka (as Agnieszka Kruk)
Anna Mucha - Sabinka
Reception
Among the strongest advocates of the film was Marek Edelman, the Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Wajda saw the idea of showing the children being led into the Treblinka gas chambers as unnecessary addition of tearjerking moments. Annette Insdorf, a film scholar and strong supporter of Wajda, considers Korczak to be a masterpiece alongside Wajda's own Ashes and Diamonds, in her commentary of Criterion Collection's DVD release of Wajda's War Trilogy.