Joanna Kulig (born June 24, 1982) is a Polish actress and singer.
Noted for performing in different languages, she has worked in film, television and radio as well as on stage.
She is the recipient of a European Film Award and two Polish Film Awards, and her work has been recognised at various film festivals.
In 2018, Polish magazine Wprost included her among the 50 most influential Poles for her contributions to the cinema of Poland.
After an unsuccessful attempt at a career as a jazz singer, Kulig enrolled at the AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków, graduating in 2007.
She began performing on stage while still in drama school, debuting in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Her first starring film role in the 2007 drama Wednesday, Thursday Morning won her the award for Best Debut at the Gdynia Film Festival.
She received further acclaim for her performance in the 2011 film Elles, which earned her Best Supporting Actress at the Polish Film Awards and Gdynia Film Festival.
Kulig was born on 24 June 1982 in Krynica, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland.
Her mother worked as a cook at a local kindergarten and her father was a folk poet.
She was raised in a musical family along with four siblings—two older brothers and two younger sisters—in Muszynka.
One of her sisters, Justyna Schneider, is also an actress and adopted their great-grandmother's surname to avoid confusion as their first names are similar
The story follows Joanna, a striking forty-year-old woman trapped in a stifling marriage to a wealthy and controlling man. When she meets Ada, an enigmatic and free-spirited young woman, Joanna is drawn into a journey of self-discovery and rebellion. As their bond deepens, Joanna begins to break free from the life that has imprisoned her but liberation comes at a price she never anticipated.
A contract killer, after being diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia, is presented with the opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. But to do so, he must race against the police closing in on him as well as the ticking clock of his own rapidly deteriorating mind.
Composer Steven Lauddem is plagued by a creative block which leaves him unable to finish the score for his big comeback opera. When his former therapist-turned-wife Patricia suggests he rekindle his creativity by getting lost in the city, Steven sets out in search of inspiration. His epiphany comes after he meets a spirited woman named Katrina and discovers his life has much more potential than he bargained for, or ever could have imagined.
Mathieu, a member of the French institute in Irkutsk, is arrested overnight by the Russian authorities. Imprisoned and accused of sexual abuse on his own daughter, he realises he is a victim of a Kompromat. With the help of the FSB, someone has built up a case to frame him. Isolated, he has no one to turn to. Proving his innocence is impossible: the only solution is to escape.
The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.
Young lovers Tom and Ana, travelling through Europe, find work at the estate of the otherworldly Richard. Remote and cut off, they soon realise that they need to escape Richard’s powerful and controlling mind, before he traps them in his imagined world.
Fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, envy, shame. Adaś Miauczyński goes back to his childhood days when, like most of us, he used to find it problematic to name the emotions that accompanied him. To improve the quality of his adult life, he decides to return to that time – which proves not so carefree after all – to learn how to experience the seven basic emotions. This extremely unpredictable journey into the past features an abundance of hilarious, even comical, situations but is also filled with lots of touching moments and food for thought.
A few years back tragic events tied the fate of three Catholic priests. From then on they meet on every anniversary of the disaster to celebrate their survival. On an everyday basis they have their ups and downs. Lisowski works at the curia in a big city, has a career and is dreaming of the Vatican. Problem is, archbishop Mordowicz, an opulent church official who uses his political influence to build the largest sanctuary in Poland, gets in his way. The second priest, Trybus, is a village parson. He ministers to a poor community and gives in to human weaknesses more and more often. Kukuła is not faring well either. Despite his fervent faith, he loses the trust of his parishioners actually overnight. Soon the stories of the three clergymen are going to join once again.
A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.
Poland, 1945. Mathilde, a young French Red Cross doctor, is on a mission to help the war survivors. When a nun seeks for her help, she is brought to a convent where several pregnant sisters are hiding, unable to reconcile their faith with their pregnancy. Mathilde becomes their only hope.
After getting a taste for blood as children, Hansel and Gretel have become the ultimate vigilantes, hell-bent on retribution. Now, unbeknownst to them, Hansel and Gretel have become the hunted, and must face an evil far greater than witches... their past.
Lasting is an emotional love story about Michał and Karina, a pair of Polish students who meet and fall in love with each other while working summer jobs in Spain. An unexpected nightmare brutally breaks into their carefree time in the heavenly landscape and throws their lives into chaos.
Hannah, a young Jewish girl, is rescued from a concentration camp by her Polish boyfriend, and believes he died after their perilous escape. More than 30 years later, the married Hannah faces an emotional crisis when she learns he's alive.
An American writer moves to Paris to be closer to his daughter and finds himself falling immediately on hard times.
The story of Janosik, a legendary "Central European Robin Hood", based on real XVIII century documents and a romantic legend. Young Janosik, burnt out by war experiences and disappointment in love, joins a team of brigands. Soon after he becomes the troop's leader and is recognized as a brave and honorable commander, he never kills anyone he robs. Along with the fame he starts enjoying popularity among women. But Janosik's success raises jealousy in one of the troop's members, greedy and brutal Huncaga.