Jerzy Gruza

Dear Friends! On Wednesday 12 November 2025 at 6 pm, free admission, we invite you to 4 Boremlowska Street, to Kredens pod Oknami, for another intimate meeting with a TV play directed by Jerzy Gruza, “Eryk XIV”, starring Marek Walczewski!

Year of production: 1979. Premiere: 12 November 1979 (we are managing to screen it exactly on the anniversary of the premiere). Colour, 118 min.

In Strindberg’s drama about Eric XIV, literary historians have seen an analogy with Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and in the figure of the king living on the edge of madness they have recognised a stylised self-portrait of the author. Eric XIV, son of Gustav I, the founder of the Vasa dynasty, sat on the Swedish throne for only eight years. In 1568 he was deposed and imprisoned by the magnates led by his half-brothers – John, Duke of Finland, married to Catherine Jagiellon, and Charles, Duke of Södermanland, later King Charles IX of Sweden, who was soundly defeated at Kircholm by his Polish nephew Sigismund III Vasa.

Eric unsuccessfully sought the hand of Queen Elizabeth I of England, of the Tudors, or of Mary of the Scottish Stuart dynasty. Strindberg is interested precisely in this last, difficult period in the life of the Swedish monarch. Knowing that the king’s courtship in England has failed, Göran Persson, the éminence grise of the Stockholm court, asks Eric’s concubine to be at his side when this blow strikes him…

We warmly invite you to film evenings at the Grochów pavilion! Do buy something here – there are various teas, cakes and delicious drinks! The screenings are free! We start on 17 JULY AT 8 PM. This year Kredens pod Oknami and the Piwnica Poetycka ENS Foundation are expanding their activities! We are spreading our wings, dear friends! Let's meet in the friendly and welcoming Grochów pavilion. Here is the programme of the July evenings!

We warmly invite you to Kredens pod Oknami, Szklanych Domów 13! Free admission! An extraordinary evening!

The neighbourhood Local Activity Centre Kredens pod Oknami, Szklanych Domów 13
warmly invites you to
An evening of remembrance:
Jerzy Gruza and his "worlds"
On the fifth anniversary of the director's passing
and a screening of his last film "DARIUSZ"
Special guests
Tatiana Sosna-Sarno
Zofia Czernicka
Rafał Dajbor
Wednesday, 26 February 2025, 6:30 pm
Kredens pod Oknami, ul. Szklanych Domów 13, free admission

Jerzy Gruza, pseudonym "Paweł Binke", born 4 April 1932 in Warsaw, died 16 February 2020 in Pruszków

Polish director and screenwriter, occasionally a film actor. Creator of many television programmes and shows.

The grave of Jerzy Gruza at the Military Cemetery at Powązki in Warsaw (headstone by the architect Tomasz Skorupa, "Kontrastowo")

Graduate of the Directing Department of the Film School in Łódź (1956). At the start of his career he worked at TVP with Bogumił Kobiela and Jacek Fedorowicz (the programmes Poznajmy się, Małżeństwo doskonałe, Kariera, Runda). He directed many TV Theatre productions, including "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck (1957), "The School for Widows" by Jean Cocteau, the monodrama "Sammy" with Zbigniew Cybulski (1962), and "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme" by Molière (in 1969 Bogumił Kobiela played his last role in it).

He directed popular series: Wojna domowa (1965–1966), Czterdziestolatek (1974–1977), Pierścień i róża (1986), Czterdziestolatek. 20 lat później (1993), and feature films: Dzięcioł (1970), Przeprowadzka (1972), Motylem jestem, czyli romans 40-latka (1976).

In 1983 he became director of the Musical Theatre in Gdynia. On that stage he directed great musical hits: Fiddler on the Roof (premiere 1984), Jesus Christ Superstar (1987), Les Misérables (1989), Man of La Mancha (1991), Żołnierz królowej Madagaskaru (1991). He is the author of the books: 40 lat minęło jak jeden dzień (1998) and Człowiek z wieszakiem – życie zawodowe i towarzyskie (2003). He was a juror in the programme Zostań Gwiazdą Filmową.

On 22 July 1964, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of People's Poland, he received a collective first-class state prize for artistic work in TV Theatre[2]. He was also a winner of the Super Wiktor award, given in 1993 for television work. At the gala of the 42nd Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia (2017) he received the "Platinum Lions" for lifetime achievement[3].