ABSTRACT
In the preponderantly male world of Polish cinema, those few female film makers who achieve prominence are an exception to the rule. Eclipsed by the likes of Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Wajda, or the late Krzysztof Kieślowski, women who have dared enter the male world of film production have found themselves expending a significant amount of energy in overcoming deeply entrenched gender barriers. Agnieszka Holland, Barbara Sass, and Dorota Kedzierzawska each persevered to produce remarkable films dealing with political, social, and cultural issues centring on the lives of women, chil dren, and families. Agnieszka Holland (before her Hollywood career) and both Dorota Kedzierzawska and Barbara Sass (throughout their careers) all deal with the problems of the underprivileged, the socially deprived, the poor, and the abandoned. Holland's early films, A Woman Alone (1981) and Angry Harvest (1985), present women in claustrophobic situations: the former, as prisoners of the political system; the latter, as prisoners of war. Barbara Sass creates excruciating portraits of female alcoholics or ambitious, inde pendent women who end up bitter and alone. Finally, Dorota Kedzierzawska depicts the world of the utterly disenfranchised - abandoned children, im poverished women, and Gypsies, all of whom are generally alienated (po litically and culturally) within Polish society.
