Andrzej Horubała

(b. 1962) – writer, literary critic, director and TV screenwriter, film producer.

In his novels, Andrzej Horubała combines fiction with real events and measures the creative gesture against collective myths. In this way, he brings into his books both personal themes and a critical view of reality, which he observes as a conservative, a right-wing Catholic commentator and writer.

This is what happens in the novel “Farciarz” (Lucky Guy). It is a first-person story of a protagonist who – possibly not without reason – shares the author’s name, has many children and works in film production. He used to print flyers and now he is in show-business. He contributes to church collections, loves sex and has no problem talking about it, and even speak to bishop Wojtyła about the conflict between eroticism and the teachings of the Church. The book is set over one day, during which the protagonist receives a proposal from a certain bishop which might change the course of his career.

“Wdowa smoleńska albo niefart” (A Smoleńsk Widow or Bad Luck), in turn, is a story of a journalist who quits his job at a weekly, which means he loses his laptop with private notes about family, society and politics. He worries that his notes are being read by a Smoleńsk widow who was supposed to sort out him out with a ministerial freelance job. The widow is ostentatiously silent, while he contemplates the enormity of his humiliation, flipping through memories of the past decade, touching upon the most painful moments of his life.

Horubała is also the author of critical sketch collections such as “Ostatni akord” (The Last Chord). It includes texts in which he presents himself as a careful observer of cultural life, an arbiter assessing new releases and referring to the classics. In the opening chapter, entitled “Wielcy” (The Greats) he looks at popular monographs of Gombrowicz, Lem and Herbert, shares his remarks about an adaptation of Mickiewicz’s “Dziady” (Forefathers’ Eve) by Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrošius, and describes an exhibition on Wyspiański at the National Museum in Kraków. In the part about new literary releases we can find his judgments on Gretkowska, Masłowska, Żulczyk, Twardoch and Orbitowski.

Andrzej Horubała directed TV programmes including “Wojciech Cejrowski – Boso przez świat”, “TelePeeReLe” (featuring cabaret Elita), “Lekka jazda Mazurka i Zalewskiego”, “Wieczór z Wampirem”, “Wieczór z Jagielskim” and documentaries “2 Tm 2,3 – rock chrześcijański” (about the music band 2 Tm 2,3), “Gugul – rzecz o nauczycielu”, “Rodowody niepokornych” and, together with Wojciech Klata, “System 09”, “Fantazmaty Powstania Warszawskiego”. He has worked with TV stations including TVP, TV Puls, RTL7.

In 1999 he received the Meritorious for Polish Culture decoration for his activity in the underground publishing and cultural movement. In 2017 he received the Cross of Freedom and Solidarity and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.