Xawery Żuławski is a young Polish director/screenwriter who has gained a reputation as a creator of both feature films and TV shows. When discussing his work one has to understand that he is a true individuality of Polish cinema, an uncompromising artist who filters everything that he does through his own vision of the reality, and who is constantly and relentlessly looking for new means of expression. Each of his projects stimulates a series of heated debates and makes many viewers thrill with excitement. Admittedly, Żuławski is only
at the beginning of his artistic path, nevertheless, since the premiere of his feature debut “Chaos" in 2006, Polish cinema has gained another film author and the voice representing a new generation of Polish filmmakers.

He has director's trade and rebellious philosophy of life in his genes - his father is Andrzej Żuławski, a famous Polish filmmaker. It was
on the set of his “Blue Note" when the nearly twenty-year-old son started his practical adventure with cinema. He received theoretical knowledge in famous “Łódź Film School". At the time of graduation, in 1995, he already had quite a big film experience - together with Artur Urbański they have made a documentary about Berlinale entitled “News from Jimmy". Żuławski has also worked as a second director
on the set of Urbański's “Bellissima", as an assistant director to Mariusz Grzegorzek on “Conversation with a Cupboard Man",
and an assistant to cinematographer Denis Lenoir during the production of “An Air So Pure". Żuławski has also tried his luck as a producer, taking care of Polish part of Claude Lanzmann's documentary “Sobibor". While directing subsequent short films (“One Thousand Forbidden Bushes" by Piotr Kielar), music videos (for the band T. Love) and TV advertisements, and learning his skills on sets of other films, Żuławski has been planning his feature debut. Despite his eagerness and honest attempts, “Chaos" was made only as late as in 2006.


Xawery Żuławski, photo by Andrzej Lew
It received numerous awards - Golden Lions for the Best Debut during the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia, Grand Prix “Great Amber" during “The Youth and Film" festival in Koszalin - and, by many viewers, was called the manifesto of thirty-year-olds of that time. After that Xawery Żuławski's career received a great boost of energy. Before his second feature, the film adaptation of Dorota Masłowska's novel “Snow White Russian Red", the now widely known director had made three great episodes of cult Polish TV series “Pitbull". Żuławski was never afraid of challenges, that is why he welcomed a possibility to adapt difficult literary language of Masłowska's novel into the require-
ments of a silver screen. Due to his efforts the film version of “Snow White Russian Red" gained a peculiar visual style that - together with Borys Szyc's fantastic role - became the film's calling card. One more time a series of awards and nominations showered (including Best Polish Film award at Plus Camerimage 2009), but most importantly, the film almost instantly became a cult classic; one of the most quotable Polish pictures of the previous decade. Among other Żuławski's projects one can spot directing thirteen episodes of a comedy TV series “Aida" and forty episodes of TVP Kultura's show “Out of Control". Currently he has a few projects on his slate, making his fans whiten with impatience. One of them is his own screenplay called “Karma", the other an adaptation of a famous Polish novel “Zły" by Leo-
pold Tyrmand.

Xawery Żuławski will be one of the jurors of the Student Etudes Competition of 19th Plus Camerimage. Who else is better for the job of assessing the work of young filmmakers if not the director who in all of his projects keeps a great balance between his artistic vision and the factors that the new generation of filmmakers use to be noticed.