BAKA, MIROSŁAW

(1963-)

Actor Mirosław Baka became internationally known for his role as a young drifter inKrzysztof Kieslowski's celebratedtelevision filmDecalogue5and its theatrical version,A Short Film about Killing(1988). This was Baka's third screen appearance and his first major role (he graduated from acting school in 1989). At the beginning of the 1990s, he played various roles in films directed by Jacek Skalski andAndrzej Barański(By the River Nowhere, 1991) and gained critical praise for his role as a postwar regional Communist Party secretary inAndrzej Wajda'sThe Ring with a Crowned Eagle(1992).Later he excelled in Wajda's television filmFranciszek Kłos' Death Sentence(2000), playing another (afterA Short Film about Killing) antihero—a Polish policeman during World War II who collaborates with the Germans and subsequently is sentenced to death by the underground. Baka maintained popularity in Poland playing "tough guys" inWładysław Pasikowski's filmsThe War Demons According to Goya(1998) andReich(2001), where he was paired withBogusław Linda. For his role as a stockbroker inAmok(1998), directed by Natalia Koryncka-Gruz, he was nominated for thePolish Film Award"Eagle." Baka also acted in films made in Hungary, Denmark, and Germany: for example, in Emily Atefs filmMolly's Way(2005). Since 1988 he has been associated with the Seashore Theater in Gdańsk (Teatr Wybrzeże).