Wojciech Has

Wojciech Jerzy Has (1925-2000) was a Polish writer and director renowned for his surrealistic style and singular approach to uncovering the hidden neuroses of Polish society. Has studied art in the clandestine underground classes run by the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts during the Second World War. In the 1950s, he began work at the nation’s premier filmmaking academy, the National Film Studio, in Łódź. He made his debut with Harmony (1948), a medium-length feature, and began making full-length features in 1957. His most notable films include Farewells (1958), The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), The Doll (1968) and The Hour-Glass Sanatorium. The Polish critic Aleksander Jackiewicz wrote of Has that “had [he] become a painter, he would surely have been a Surrealist. He would have redrawn antique objects with all their real accoutrements and juxtaposed them in unexpected ways.”