Biography
Krystyna Zachwatowicz-Wajda is a Polish scenographer, costume designer and actress. Born in Warsaw on 16 May 1930, she graduated in art history from the Jagiellonian University and in scenography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. She began her career as a scenographer in 1958 and was a performer with the cabaret Piwnica pod Baranami from the late 1950s into the 1970s.
She appeared as an actress in several films directed by Andrzej Wajda, to whom she was married from 1974 until his death in 2016. Her roles include Hanka Tomczyk in Man of Marble (1977) and its sequel Man of Iron (1981), Kazia in The Maids of Wilko (1979), and Mrs Greta in Katyn (2007). She has also designed costumes and sets for many of Wajda’s stage and screen productions. With Wajda she co-founded the Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Kraków.
