Sroczyński, Aleksander
Entry updated 3 August 2026. Tagged: Film, People.
(1953- ) Polish director, animator, writer and illustrator. He graduated from Krakow's Faculty of Graphic Arts (part of the Academy of Fine Arts), then in 1983 undertook a Postgraduate Study of Directing Animated and Experimental Film at The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School (PWSFTviT) in Łódź (sometimes called the Łódź Film School). He worked at the Krakow Studio of Animated Films during the 1980s, moving to the USA in 1989 and becoming involved in illustration and film advertising. This entry covers his period of producing animated shorts: he was involved in at least two, but usually all three, of their directing, writing and animation/art.
His first film, 8 i ¾ (1981), is a series of numbered jokes (see Humour); the first involves a family of ghosts (see Supernatural Creatures) hijacking a bus and causing it to crash; another a man turning into a Monster after watching too many Horror films. W trawie nie tylko piszczy (1981; vt In the Grass It Doesn't Just Squeak...) has a tiny (see Great and Small) young couple and their dog living in a strawberry and interacting with the local wildlife (some of which use Technology) before their home – with them inside – is picked and turned into jam. Adam i Ewa (1983; vt Adam and Eve) has the serpent tempting Eve with an apple, only for Adam and Eve to fight over the snake until it is torn in two, with the couple each devouring their half; the apple is ignored (see Religion). NGC (1983) has an Alien Shapeshift into an attractive woman: a man invites her into his car and makes his move, whereupon she absorbs both him and the vehicle. Niespodziewane odwiedziny, czyli ... droga do sąsiada (1984) is a tale of first contact, with a Spaceship landing on Earth and the drinking of beer helping overcome initial difficulties.
2013: Odyseja kosmiczna (1985) is a Parody of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). it opens with Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra" playing over a star field, followed by a Star Child-like foetus; we then cut to a woman giving birth whilst the father plays a War-in-space Videogame in the hospital's waiting room. He is delighted to be told he has a son and returns to his job, cutting down a forest. That evening, driving a lorry, the lumberjack's route is blocked by a vast obelisk: he has a vision echoing the final scenes of 2001 – the star gate sequence, the old man – until a shift to the film's opening scenes, where the obelisk appears and apes use bones as weapons, panning back to reveal it is being recorded by a film crew; a flung bone hits a camera and the film reel is knocked spinning into the sky.
In Dziwne zdarzenie na przystanku autobusowym o piątej rano w miejscowości X ["A Strange Event at the Bus Stop at Five in the Morning in the Village of X"] (1987), a man Shapeshifts in front of the waiting queue, becoming a monster, a naked woman and other things; eventually someone calls an ambulance and he is taken away. I Love Feratunos czyli smak krwi (1987) is a Parody of old horror movies, with a Vampire intending to drain a young woman, only to become her victim. O Czym Marzą Koty (1987) looks at the dreams of Cats. In Meduza (1988) a man loses his brain, but this does not stop his romantic activities.
There are Satirical elements to Sroczyński's work: the non-genre 19:30 (1982) has a man hanging himself (see Suicide); before doing so he kisses a picture of Leonardo da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine". His weight causes the ceiling to collapse, bringing down the family in the room above with it; they are all intently watching Television and are oblivious of their floor having collapsed. One of the jokes in 8 i ¾ is a Dog buying a newspaper, defecating, then wiping its backside with the paper: arguably a comment on the merits of the Polish press (see Media Landscape). Dziwne zdarzenie na przystanku autobusowym o piątej rano w miejscowości X (see above) seems to comment on society's hostility towards originality. [SP]
Aleksander Sroczyński
born Poznań, Poland: 19 March 1953
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