Piotr Łazarkiewicz debuted with his film Kocham kino, which means "I love cinema". Some people criticised him for this overt and seemingly naive declaration, but for him this was neither a pose nor naiveté. From his early youth, when he saw Knights of the Teutonic Order (Krzyżacy) - and he wanted to remake the film - he kept going to cinema and regularly collected the film press. And cinema loved him back, but quite whimsically. In 1988, when he had made only one feature film, he wrote about himself in Powiększenie: Watching films made by myself and my [young] friends, I realise that... we haven't yet said THE IMPORTANT THING, OUR OWN THING.We haven't revealed ourselves... There is very little of US to be seen in our films.

He kept searching and he often took risks. He spoke about being different and about being excluded, because he was always sensitive to intolerance. He was very close to young people and he understood them very well, for instance in the excellent Fala about Jarocin festival, where he very skilfully showed how young people managed, despite the official "seal" of the authorities and clerks, to create a recess of unrestricted freedom, which was expressed through music.

In 1995 he made A Time for Witches (Pora na czarownice) and then he left cinema for many years. He focused on theatre (including TV drama and radio), he found a group of young actors and regular collaborators, who from then on made up "Łazar's family". These were probably his most creative years - Łazarkiewicz worked a lot, he prepared himself for more, he made experiments, and explored borders. He did not strive to shock - he often used dark psychodramas and black comedies filled with extreme situations, only to discover psychological mechanisms that govern ordinary day-to-day life. As Roman Pawłowski wrote about the spectacle Martwa królewna - in the depths, Łazarkiewicz searched for light and purity.

In his last, stirring film 0_1_0, made after a thirteen-year-long break, he wanted to join his experience of the theatre with film language. But it was not intended as his last film, rather, as he told me shortly before his death, a kind of passing, starting point for other explorations, this time within film art. Anyway, he had plenty of projects and plans.

He also had many friends. There were many of them - which is rare, and yet Łazarkiewicz had the exceptional skill of making you feel that you were the most important for him during any conversation. He was selflessly hearty, he sacrificed himself for people. In his leather jacket and leather trousers he lived - as his son Antoni put it at his funeral - as if every conversation could be the last one. I believe that cinema and theatre were not in themselves an aim for him. His aim was the encounter.

This was also visible at the Era New Horizons festival, where he was a regular guest for years. He watched films frantically, he recommended works to his friends, but he could also enjoy a night in a pub. This was a special festival for him. As he told to his friend and producer, Marcin Kurek, you don't come here to do business like you do in Gdynia, for instance. He was very glad that he would have the opportunity to present 0_1_0 in Wrocław and to confront a sophisticated festival audience with it. He passed away too early.

Daily meetings including films, TV dramas, and a number of almost unknown documentaries by Piotr Łazarkiewicz (including Wielka woda and Moje kino) will be held in the small hall on the ground floor of the Puppet Theatre.