Emilia Krakowska — Jagna Boryna in The Peasants

I obtained this second autograph on the same day—January 13, 1974—when I also met Jan Kociniak. It belongs to Emilia Krakowska (born 1940), a well-known Polish stage and film actress.

She left the strongest impression on me through her role as Jagna Boryna in the film The Peasants (1973), an adaptation of the Nobel Prize–winning novel by Władysław Reymont. For readers unfamiliar with Polish literature, The Peasants (Chłopi) is considered one of the most important works in Poland’s literary canon, portraying rural life at the turn of the 20th century in rich, almost ethnographic detail.

Krakowska’s portrayal of Jagna—a young woman whose beauty and independence set her apart from the rigid norms of village life—was intense, emotional, and at times controversial. Her performance captured both the sensuality and vulnerability of the character, helping make her one of the most recognizable actresses in Poland during that era.

Emilia Krakowska

I also remember her from the cult comedy Brunet Wieczorową Porą (1976), directed by Stanisław Bareja, a master of satire under communist rule. She appears there in a memorable and humorous museum scene. Her character delivers an absurd “history lesson” to a group of students using bottles of vodka from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries—explaining, with deadpan seriousness, that this was how “the gentry used to drink the peasants into submission.”

This scene perfectly captures the unique tone of Polish People’s Republic–era satire—layered, ironic, and often subtly critical of authority—and it remains one of the film’s most quoted and fondly remembered moments.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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