Film director Jerzy Gruza during today’s funeral ceremony in Warsaw was posthumously decorated with the Order of Polonia Restituta Commander’s Cross for his outstanding contribution to the development of Polish culture.
The celebrations took place at the Church of Creative Communities at Teatralny Square in Warsaw. The body of the deceased will rest at the Powązki Military Cemetery at the Avenue of the Distinguished. President Andrzej Duda in a letter read aloud before the funeral mass wrote that “the death of late Jerzy Gruza means the symbolic closure of a certain chapter in the history of Polish film and theater. A grandmaster of comedy, director, screenwriter and actor passed away. Throughout his creative life he cared to improve the mood of Poles, which especially in the times of the Polish People’s Republic was not an easy task,” he emphasized. He recalled that Gruza directed extremely popular TV series and films, such as “Domestic War” (Wojna Domowa), “Forty Year Old Man” (“Czterdziestolatek”), “The Woodpecker” (“Dzięcioł”) – full of intelligent humor and warm irony, where many great Polish actors played. Gruza was born on April 4 1932 in Warsaw and graduated from the directing faculty at the State Higher Film, TV and Theatrical School in Łódź. He passed away on February 16, aged 87.