"Oświęcim to była igraszka "

Z Markiem Proboszem – odtwórcą tytułowej roli w filmie Ryszarda Bugajskiego „Śmierć Rotmistrza Pileckiego” – rozmawia Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka

Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka:

Zagrałeś główną rolę w filmie Ryszarda Bugajskiego Śmierć Rotmistrza Pileckiego (2006). Propagowałeś też tę niezwykłą postać w Europie, Kanadzie i USA. W 100-lecie odzyskania przez Polskę niepodległości, 11 listopada 2018 r. złożyłeś hołd zarówno Polsce, jak i jej bohaterom, występując w wyreżyserowanym przez siebie monodramie Ochotnik do Auschwitz: Rotmistrz Witold Pilecki na nowojorskim Broadway’u, gdzie zdobyłeś pierwszą nagrodę Best Documentary Show Award podczas największego na świecie festiwalu jednego aktora – UNITED SOLO. Czytałeś też Raporty Pileckiego z Auschwitz w amerykańskim radio w popularnym programie NPR – All Things Considered.

Później nagrałeś dla amerykańskiego potentata audiobooków całość Raportów z Auschwitz – 10 godzin dla audible.com. W kwietniu tego roku miałeś wystąpić w prestiżowej sali Living Arts Centre w Toronto, lecz pandemia pokrzyżowała plany. Mam nadzieję, że mimo trudnej obecnej sytuacji dla aktora, nie myślisz rozstawać się z Pileckim na długo.

Marek Probosz:

Po Toronto miałem zaproszenia na występy w Polsce, w Austrii, w USA. Zamiast tego wszyscy wpadliśmy w otchłań próżni COVID-19. Niemniej Pilecki żyje we mnie, jego nie powstrzymało Piekło Auschwitz, ja nie mogę osłabnąć przez wirusa. Pozamykane teatry, kina, opery, to gniecie nas wszystkich. Najważniejsze jednak, aby w tym wszystkim nie dać się opanować wirusowi strachu, on jest głównym winowajcą tragedii tego czasu, ludzkiego zniewolenia. W każdy weekend idę do ogrodu w Santa Monica i jak pacierz odmawiam tam na głos swój 60-cio minutowy monolog Raportu Witolda. Moja misja Pilecki trwa.

Zapraszamy na Culture Avenue do przeczytania calosci TUTAJ

“Bridging Urban America. The Story of Ralph Modjeski” (2016) – a documentary about Rudolf Modjeski

Documentary Filmmakers Driven by Passion: interview with Basia and Leonard Myszyński by Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka (Translated by Anna Boyet)

JSG: Given the success of the Helena Modjeska documentary, did you consider it a natural next step to make a film about the equally extraordinary and talented son of the artist, Rudolf Modjeski, and the bridges of his design that had an impact on the development of American transportation?

Basia Myszyński: The film about Rudolf Modjeski and the bridges of America was inspired by Janusz Płachta, an engineer of Polish descent, member of the US Army Corps of Engineers, author of the book “Artist in Concrete and Steel. Bridges of Rudolf Modjeski” that was published in 2016 (he was still working on the book as we began shooting).

Janusz Płachta spent the last 20 years researching Modjeski’s bridges, giving lectures, and publishing articles about them. He saw our “Modjeska – Woman Triumphant” documentary on PBS Chicago and considered us the perfect choice to make a movie about the artist’s son, and his tremendous contribution to the development of the US. He promptly secured financial backing for the project before, the start of production, to allow us to gather documentation about Modjeski’s bridges. Because of the sponsors, who included Eric Wintemute, Tadeusz Ungar Foundation, POLAM Federal Credit Union (Redwood City, CA), Modjeski & Masters, Inc., Piasecki Steel Construction Corp., National Steel Bridge Alliance, Polish American Congress Foundation, US-Polish Trade Council and Janusz Płachta himself, the film could become reality (a link to the complete list of sponsors is available at the end of the interview – editor’s note).

We were surprised that Modjeski designed more than forty famous bridges, and yet few people knew about it. His engineering imagination made Rudolf Modjeski as famous as his mother.

There were also other reasons why we were eager to make the movie. We wanted to tell a story of American development, American transportation, and urban growth through the lens of the accomplishments of an immigrant. In Modjeski’s days (i.e. at the turn of 19th and 20th century), American infrastructure was in a bad shape due to lack of maintenance, funds and vision. Given that context, we were able to shine light on the greatness of Modjeski’s designs that lasted for 75 years. It’s a phenomenal way to educate engineers and future city planners. Another important theme of the film is the melding of art and science. Modjeski was a virtuoso piano player, and a genius mathematician. He had a very strong bond with his mother, Helena Modjeska, which was an essential element of building his film image. And finally, we believed that the documentary would be a great way to show the Polish – American community in a positive light.

JSG: The film tells a well-researched story of a great constructor and the biggest bridges in the US. You uncovered archival images and recordings, including one of president Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor opening one of the bridges with Rudolf Modjeski. Were you able to find a lot of source materials in American archives?

BM: There are many collections that include documents related to Rudolf Modjeski and his work. The Modjeski & Masters Inc. company still exists, and has impressive archives. The main American archives in Washington, D.C - the National Archives and the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution – contain a number of records that relate to that outstanding designer. The Modjeski family also has a sizable collection of diaries, letters, and private photographs. Every big city that has a Modjeski bridge also has a library; there are also libraries of the engineering departments of universities, and historical societies that have photographs, correspondence, and publications that could be used. Archival newspapers that set the documentary in its historical context, are available online.

In the California State Archives we discovered fascinating and wide-ranging records of Modjeski’s design work. We used those findings in the segment dedicated to the Bay Bridge. An expensive and valuable film about the Quebec Bridge on Saint Lawrence River, the tragedy of its collapse, and the visit of the future king of England, was obtained from the Canadian Film Archives collection. A previously unknown recording of Rudolf Modjeski’s speech at the opening of the Ben Franklin Bridge on Delaware River was sent to us by a son of Modjeski’s last partner – Frank Masters. The family kept the recording in a safe, and even Modjeski & Masters, Inc. had no idea it existed.

Another accidental discovery that gave me goose bumps was a fragment of a film about the construction, replacement of cables, and opening of the Ambassador Bridge. That exceptional material owned by the Moving Image Research Collections at the University of South Carolina showed the dramatic story of building the bridge. The license was expensive but by using that unique recording we were able to tell the story of the Ambassador Bridge without having to go to Detroit.

The license to use the historic recording of President Roosevelt with Rudolf Modjeski was given to us by the UCLA Film & TV Archives. The search for source materials was difficult and time consuming but the outcome was worth the effort. Our only regret was that we were not able to locate a recording of the opening of the Broadway Bridge in 1913 where the opening and closing of a drawbridge was demonstrated for the first time ever, and Rudolf was a guest of honor.

Not all Modjeski’s bridges could be featured in the movie. The key was to pick the strategic bridges that would be educational, demonstrate the history of communication, and that would best highlight the unique engineering talent of Rudolf Modjeski.

JSG: You interviewed experts about Rudolf Modjeski and bridges in America. How was he perceived by transportation specialists?

BM: Most of our experts considered Modjeski an extraordinary man, an artist, engineer, innovator, and educator. The famous and respected Henry Petroski described him as someone who knew how to deal with the challenges of a competitive industry, who could win people’s trust, and as a result win bids for bridge construction. Rudolf Modjeski was also good at self-promotion. He was charming and vibrant, and yet disciplined and committed to his work. His success also benefited from his great listening and communication skills.

Several experts we interviewed pointed out that Modjeski’s love of art influenced the esthetics of his bridge designs. A few noted that coming from a wealthy family, and enjoying a high social status because of his famous mother gave Modjeski a boost at the start of his career. Others believed that he strived to identify economical solutions to problems, focusing on projects that would be “cheaper, safer, and more durable”. Modjeski was prudent but at the same time he knew how to take risks. Looking at problems from a broader perspective allowed him to apply his own criteria in risk assessment. He understood behavior of structural elements as well as human psychology, and the importance of both of those components in business. His employees worked hard to focus on details and identify answers. But it paid off. He was a man with a passion for construction, and a great respect for Mother Earth. He worked with future generations in mind.

Modjeski couldn’t stand arrogance, ignorance, and negligence. He was drawn to creative, educated people with unconventional ideas. He mingled with Europeans who had similar education background, and shared their experiences. One of our experts stated that Modjeski’s role of a chief engineer came with a great responsibility for his projects but at the same time afforded him an extensive freedom of designing, which meant he was able to implement anything he came up with. That approach would not be possible today because of an entire system of checks and official approvals required for each step of the construction process.

JSG: Which qualities of Rudolf Modjeski do you value the most?

BM: For me Rudolf Modjeski was a Renaissance man; highly cultured, educated, disciplined, and respected by his peers. I admired his individuality, spirit, and constant pursuit of perfection. He always strived to improve himself and his designs; he evolved as an artist, innovator, and engineer. For Leonard, Modjeski’s most admirable qualities were his courage to design such monumental structures, and intuition he applied to solve the most complex problems. Despite his accomplishments and renown, he remained humble until the end of his life.

JSG: What was Rudolf Modjeski’s role in the development of American transportation?

BM: Modjeski’s bridges transformed the urban landscape of the US, and contributed to the development of the transportation network throughout the country. With his unique skills, Rudolf was the right man in the right place at the right time. Contrary to many of his contemporaries, Modjeski was able to design all types of bridges – drawbridges, cable stayed bridges, suspension bridges, or any combination of those. His designs showed great concern for the natural environment and the surroundings of the bridge. He took into account all geographic and geological factors that could affect the construction, which required extraordinary resourcefulness and experience. His bridges contributed to the boom of big Northern American cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, Portland, New York, Philadelphia or Quebec City in East Canada. In harmony with the development of technology and expansion of the transcontinental railway system, Modjeski built multifunctional bridges capable of carrying heavy cargo trains, and later - vehicles across the US. He developed and patented technologies to make such performance possible, to facilitate a faster and more streamlined transport of goods. In the words of Gray Brechin of the University of California, Berkley: “By building this vast infrastructure, the New Deal brought the country into the mid 20th century”.

Modjeski’s contribution to building modern America cannot be underestimated, not only in the context of development of transport but also his implementation of new technologies, application of cutting edge materials, and ensuring employment of large numbers of workers during the Great Depression, which helped lower unemployment.

He worked very closely with government agencies and financial institutions, and owing to his great reputation the bridges he designed were built fast, sturdily, safely, and cost-effectively. And they continue to serve America.

JSG: The film has some amazing shots of bridges from land, water, and air perspectives. Was it difficult to show those amazing structures from so many vantage points?

BM: To showcase the design, engineering, and architecture of those super structures in all their glory we had to film them from every perspective. One of the biggest challenges from the point of view of logistics, finances, and cinematography was getting aerial shots from a helicopter to capture the bridges in full sun, suspended between the water, land, and air. Given Leonard’s skills and experience, he was the man for the job. But getting those aerial shots required a permit, in certain cases from the US Department of Defense, because of the military significance of bridges. We also had to seek city permits to film a bridge, and sometimes a separate permit to walk on the bridge. In some cases, filming a bridge required us to increase our insurance policy. We also had to pick the optimal time of the year and of the day when the light was just right, coordinate our shooting schedule with the city schedule, account for the regular daily use of the bridges, and coordinate everything perfectly with the incoming vehicle and train traffic or approaching ships. Sometimes we had three different cameramen shoot a bridge simultaneously from different angles. Leonard would be taking helicopter aerials in a very narrow 25 minute window, with another operator focusing on wide angle shots of a river bank, and the third one filming a large barge passing under a bridge. We also utilized drone cameras (e.g. for shots of the Broadway Bridge) and GoPro cameras. When filming the Huey P. Long Bridge, Leonard was strapped to the side of the bridge to get close-ups of incoming trains, and shots from inside of the steel frame. It was pretty dangerous. And filming on water was really tricky too, because of strong river undercurrents.

Shooting the Quebec Bridge also involved some difficult conditions, as we had to consider the high tides and low tides of St. Lawrence River. As the water receded, it revealed steel sections remaining from the tragic collapse of the bridge over 100 years ago. Leonard would then take underwater shots, and split shots. We got some spectacular footage!

And whatever could not be filmed we supplemented with animation to complete our story.

JSG: Where was “Bridging Urban America” aired?

BM: The film premiered at the global steel bridge conference organized by the National Steel Bridge Alliance - our main sponsor. After that, we showed it at symposiums, technical universities, Polish-American organizations, and prestigious clubs, such as the Union League Club of Chicago, where the movable bridges designed by Rudolf Modjeski play a crucial role in the city’s communication system. The film had screenings in various cities where Modjeski’s bridges are located, and the screenings were often accompanied by an expert panel. The Santa Ana Bowers Museum in California held a series of sessions entitled “Two Generations of Modjeskis – For the Love of Art and Science”, which included two screenings of the documentary. In July, the San Francisco Public Library in cooperation with the National New Deal Preservation Association and The Living New Deal, as well as the Labor Festival, put on an exhibition of the art of the New Deal. Our movie was presented as part of that exhibition.

Our domestic distributor - NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association) distributed the documentary to the US public television stations, and it aired on PBS in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (OR), Quad Cities, NY, Vermont, Quebec, Philadelphia, and in August – on WTTW Chicago. DVD sales are also doing well. We were also thrilled to have the documentary screened as part of the Day of Steel webinar for engineers seeking to improve their qualifications; taking a quiz about the film was part of their credit requirement for the course. The webinar screening was organized by the American Institute of Steel Construction, a prestigious organization that awarded Modjeski’s designs on three separate occasions – and that feat has not been matched by anyone else since Modjeski. Our goal right now is to sell the film to TV stations all over the world.

„MODJESKA – WOMAN TRIUMPHANT” (2009) – a documentary about Helena Modjeska

Documentary Filmmakers Driven by Passion: interview with Basia and Leonard Myszyński by Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka (Translated by Anna Boyet)

JSG: You were born in the US and attended school here. Then you went on to study at the Łódź Film School in Poland, and while there you met your future husband – Leonard. What made you decide to settle in the US?

BM: After getting married in Nysa in 1985, we moved to Southern California in 1988, and set up a photography and film production company SOLAR EYE COMMUNICATIONS. In our industry, California was the land of opportunities; there was no better place for a filmmaker in the world, and Leonard had always dreamt of living there. There was also the advantage of raising our children with the support of our family. Our oldest daughter Lara was born in the US, and spent two years with us in Poland. Our younger children were raised with the help of my parents in Orange County. We live and work in a great community, and that in itself was another important reason to raise our children here. They are all grown up now, and follow their own passions. But we never regretted our decision to settle in the US. 

JSG: What were the projects you worked on in California?

BM: Over the past 30 years we have worked for a number of different clients, including Walt Disney Records, Sony 550, 20th Century Fox, American Vanguard, St. Joseph Health, United Way, and numerous corporations. We shot documentary shorts, including Olivia Newton John in Benefit Concert, John Farrar Making Music, The Child Within, Segerstrom Farming Operation, and Beauty-Power-Passion and Riders in the Sky for The Making of Monsters, Inc. Sing-Along. We travelled all over the US producing promotional videos, TV ads, commercial photographs, and documentaries. I also had a brief stint as a film instructor at a prestigious art school in Orange County. We were able to make our living off film and photography. And over the last decade our primary focus was on documenting life and work of the Modjeski family.

JSG: What is it that fascinates you about documentaries?

BM: Getting immersed in real people’s lives, learning about their passions, and sharing their stories; that’s what’s absolutely fascinating. But making a documentary takes a great deal of experience, research skills, and personal relationships, like gaining the trust of the family members whose story we want to tell. That’s why we try to create a historical context, and uncover new facts, to be able to offer an unbiased portrayal of our subjects in their own environment, in a specific timeframe.

Another important aspect of making a documentary is seeking out and interviewing the right experts. A common thread that runs through all our films is the role of art, and its impact on our subjects. Another highly compelling aspect is melding art and science, as shown in “Bridging Urban America”.

JSG: Producing a documentary is a serious feat.

BM: We are aware of the crucial role of scouring documents, historical research, and license rights. We understand the tactics and sources of financing, logistics of production, deadlines, and marketing needs. For a good director, it’s all about the details. Later on, that magnifying glass approach to reality and truth is also projected on the screen.

But the primary reason we enjoy producing documentaries is making social impact, raising awareness, and highlighting problems, which may trigger positive changes in our real lives. For example, the core message of “Bridging Urban America” is to raise the issue of ethics and responsibility in engineering in the context of our safety; to underline the need for regular maintenance of bridges, given their indispensability for business and for the economic growth of the country. We are proud to work with filmmakers who shine the light on issues that are often ignored, taking risks as they try to get to the bottom of truth. The best films don’t merely document reality but also educate, inform, inspire, and trigger action.

I am a member of the IDA (International Documentary Association), and the organization has offered a great support for our films.

JSG: What triggered your interest in Helena Modjeska?

BM: My mother was an amateur actress, and she was fascinated with Helena Modjeska. They also had a lot in common. She collected books about Modjeska, and there were many times when I would pick something out from my mother’s library to learn more about that dual-nationality star. Besides, I love theater; I have a degree in acting, and stage experience. I studied how to build a character, how to embody a role.

As the centennial of Modjeska’s death was approaching it occurred to us that no movie had yet been made in the US about that great Shakespearean actress. And we were in a perfect position to take on that project. We lived a few miles from Arden - Modjeska’s historical house; the Irvine Langston library at the local University of California had a vast collection of source materials and letters of Helena Modjeska; Bowers Museum in Santa Ana boasted one of the greatest collections of personal items of the artist; and we knew Ellen Lee (who is no longer with us) – one of the top experts in Modjeska’s life and work in the country. And most importantly – we were filmmakers with our own production company.

But it was only after I read the actress’s memoir Memories and Impressions where Helena Modjeska speaks in her own voice and offers a colorful account of her life that I truly fell in love with her. I found her deep, personal, and insightful view of reality absolutely captivating. She paved the path to success for women on this continent. Modjeska and the US grew up hand in hand, and she enriched its culture. She portrayed diverse female figures, both historical and contemporary, creating a wide variety of characters and personalities. She performed both on the largest stages of the biggest American cities and on tiny stages in the most remote corners of the country. As one of the first female entrepreneurs, she showed women that they also had a voice. Modjeska proved how far actors can take their profession, and what mission they can accomplish. She was a remarkable individual.

JSG: So in a sense you became friends with her.

BM: Yes, at some point Modjeska and I established a bond, she somehow spoke to me. The qualities I most appreciate in people – nobility and compassion, Modjeska had them both. Beth Holmgren, a Duke University professor, an author of a book about Modjeska and a key commentator in our documentary, describes her as “an artist with a mission”. Right from the start Leonard had that vision of portraying Modjeska through a veil of innuendos, shrouded in mystery, since no living person witnessed her life and was able to offer us an actual account of what she was really like. I found an actress who had Modjeska’s qualities – she seemed to embody her personality, looks, and acting skills. And that’s how “Modjeska – Woman Triumphant” was born.

JSG: The Helena Modjeska documentary “Modjeska – Woman Triumphant” premiered in 2009. Tell us where the film has been shown, and how it’s been received by American audiences?

BM: “Modjeska – Woman Triumphant” aired on PBS stations, PBS Southern California, Chicago WTTW and WGBY in Massachusetts; it was screened at film festivals in Newport Beach and Paso Robles (where Paderewski had his ranch), and Polish film festivals in Los Angeles, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Toronto, and in Poland - at Two Riversides Film and Art Festival. It also had a screening at the Bowers Museum, Helena Modjeska Art & Cultural Club w Los Angeles, at the National Old Theater in Krakow, the Grand Theater in Warsaw, just to name a few.

In 2010 I received the best director award from The Women’s International Film & Television Showcase. Many commenters praised Leonard’s photography, the emotional film score by Mikołaj Stroiński, or the amazing interpretation of Helena Modjeska’s voice by Danuta Stenka. Reviews and publications emphasized the documentary’s richness and attention to detail, and a trove of historical facts it offers about Helena Modjeska’s life and her contribution to the development of theater and acting profession in the US. Appearances by four descendants of the artist were also touching. There is constant interest in the film, as individuals, universities (theater departments) and libraries continue to buy the DVDs.

Monastery of Mercy - Interview with Jacek Raginis-Królikiewicz

Jacek Raginis-Królikiewicz, director of The Day of Wrath Television Theater production based on a play by Roman Brandstaetter, in an interview with Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka (Translated by Anna Boyet)

The Day of Wrath is a 1962 play by Roman Brandstaetter. The Television Theater play with the same title was produced in 2019. What inspired you to take on that particular play?

I first discovered the works of Roman Brandstaetter many years ago when I read his excellent four-volume novel Jesus of Nazareth. I knew the author as an outstanding writer, poet, and translator but I had no idea that he was also a playwright. It was 2018; I just wrapped up working on Inspection – a play about the fate of Polish officers at a POW camp before the Katyń massacre, and I was looking for a subject for a new project that would be just as deep and powerful. The motif of temptation and choice under extreme circumstances has always held interest for me. So when a friend of mine brought up Brandstaetter’s The Day of Wrath drama as a forgotten masterpiece, I dove deep into that play, and I was struck by it – particularly by the culmination scene. “I have to do this” – I thought. I drafted the outline for the adaptation over the next few days.

The drama triggers an emotional response, and reflection on the value of life and boundaries that must not be crossed; viewers are caught off guard by a sense that nothing is clear cut, there is no black and white. To what extent did you remain true to the original play, and how much of it is your director’s interpretation? 

I made some cuts to the original play without compromising the core of the drama. I had to fit a 2.5 hour long performance into 85 minutes. Brandstaetter dedicated his play to the memory of Polish martyrs who died at the hands of the Nazi Cains for helping and sheltering Jews during the occupation. He inscribed those words on the title page of the drama. 

It was that message that guided me. It prompted me to open the play with a prologue of Born reading an actual order of governor Hans Frank issued in October 1941, that made aiding or sheltering Jews punishable by death. That was the law in Poland throughout the war, and the crackdown there were so much more severe than anywhere else in Europe. Why did Nazis enact that law in Poland? Obviously, to eradicate the spontaneous help that Poles were extending to Jews. But Polish people continued to hide Jews, even at the cost of their own life. And that’s what I wanted to show in the prologue scene. It was important to me to make the young generation in Poland who don’t know much about the war, as well as the viewers abroad, aware of the extreme risk and a critical dilemma faced by the protagonists of the drama. It wasn’t a simple moral choice on their part - it involved a real life threat. Even though the point of my adaptation diverges from the original play, I am sure that it aligns with the message intended by the author. 

Characters in Roman Brandstaetter’s plays often experience metanoia, i.e. spiritual conversion. Protagonists rediscover themselves; notice something they failed to see before. They embark on a path of discovery in defiance of all logic or social pressure. In your opinion, to what extent will the play resonate with today’s audience, and does it carry a universal message? 

Although Brandstaetter’s play is set during the Second World War, I am confident that in a number of ways its message still rings true today. It contemplates opportunities and difficulties involved in communicating with people who represent opposing views, come from very different backgrounds. It’s a story about encountering an Alien, a Stranger, about being able to look at an adversary and see a human being. A story where a morally corrupt and hate-driven war criminal may show profoundness and sensitivity. The question is whether metanoia is actually possible at the bottom of perdition. I also read the play as a raw and poignant study of conversation between Jews and Poles, followers of Judaism and Christianity, of their mutual relations. But it’s also a reflection on despair, on rejecting faith in the face of an enormity of suffering. To me, the words spoken by the young Jew Emanuel Blatt are as poignant as those of father Paneloux in Camus’s The Plague after he witnessed the painful death of an innocent child. I consider The Day of Wrathto be one of the greatest works of world literature. 

The play is clearly inspired by medieval Passion plays, but it also draws from Greek tragedies with the chorus of monks offering a commentary of actions. Was it hard to achieve a theater-like effect of a television production?

Actually, the goal I set for myself was completely different. I wanted viewers to feel like they were watching a movie par excellence rather than a stage play. And not just any movie – but rather a superbly produced, suspenseful thriller. At the same time, The Day of Wrath is a mystical drama with a prominent role played by a Chorus of Fathers who provide a poetic commentary to the actions, just like in a classical drama. While working on the screenplay I realized I wanted the chorus parts to sound like a Gregorian chant, to highlight the unique setting of The Day of Wrath. I wouldn’t be able to pull this off without the help of the singers of the Bornus Consort early music ensemble, one of the most outstanding performers of choral music in Poland and Europe, specifically Marcin Bornus-Szczyciński and Stanisław Szczyciński. They composed brilliant music, and performed in the play as actors. 

Born to a Jewish family, Roman Brandstaetter was a Polish patriot and a Catholic versed in the Bible, whose drama The Day of Wrath focused on Polish – Jewish – German relations during the Second World War. Do you believe that a stage play has the power to change the stereotypical image of a Polish anti-Semite or the use of the term “Polish concentration camps”?

My hope is that The Day of Wrath will contribute to changing that damaging stereotype. Tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors owe their lives to Poles who came to their aid. In some cases, keeping a single Jew alive over several years of the German terror involved help of more than a dozen Polish people. And each of those rescuers put their own life on the line, facing the risk of death for themselves and their entire family. Admittedly, there were also Polish snitches, war criminals, and shmaltzovniks (*blackmailers of Jews), but those were much fewer, and mostly with a criminal background. One of the characters in Brandstaetter’s drama is a Polish woman who is an anti-Semite, a blackmailer, and an informant. All that needs to be said out loud. Reconciliation can only be built on dialogue, and telling the truth - however hard; but most of all – on creating opportunities to get to know each other. I am thrilled to see Jewish culture festivals pop up all over Poland, and Polish films screened in Israel; to witness the economic cooperation bloom. I believe that the more we learn about each other the more we improve the odds of being able to break out of the vicious circle of prejudice and stereotype.

The Day of Wrath has been screened and won awards all over the world. Please tell us a little bit about that.

Bear in mind that our production was really modest, with a budget of about 250 thousand dollars. We intentionally scaled down our set design, and the entire movie was practically filmed in one location. It premiered on Polish TV in November 2019. Because of that, we are not participating in premiere festivals, focusing instead on smaller, independent film festivals abroad - in the US, Canada, Italy or even in India. The pandemic complicated everything; some film competitions got cancelled, others moved online, or adopted a hybrid model. So far, The Day of Wrath had screenings at dozens of film competitions all over the world.  The very fact of making it through to the official selection of foreign festivals, getting picked from among thousands of submissions from all over the world – I consider that a success. At the recent Hollywood Divine International Film Festival in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania we literally got showered with awards, including Best Picture for The Day of Wrath, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, and Best Lead Actress. That level of recognition by foreign festivals clearly shows that we succeeded in telling a universal story that engages even those viewers who don’t have the Polish historical context.

I am particularly thrilled with the awards won by the actors: Radek Pazura who played the Prior (Canadian International Faith & Family Film Festival 2020, Canada, Toronto - Best Leading Actor), Janek Marczewski as Blatt the Jew (Hollywood Divine International Film Festival 2020, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania) or Natalia Rybicka as Julia (Hollywood Divine). We have amazing actors, and I am really excited that they are getting appreciated abroad.

You mentioned Inspection - another prizewinning Television Theater play. Your father, director Grzegorz Królikiewicz was involved in that project.

That’s correct. At the time, my father was an experienced director, and a professor at the Łódź Film School. He wrote that drama over the course of several years, and was planning to direct it. He invited me to work with him on the screenplay a few months before it went to production. As a graduate of historical studies, I combed through source texts and historical documents, which led to developing new story lines and characters; for example, an important character of Stanisław Świaniewicz who escaped death, and described his experience in a harrowing memoir In the shadow of Katyń (W cieniu Katynia). I was also able to uncover new details about major Vasily Zarubin who investigated Polish officers. I was responsible for casting, and putting together the film crew. My father died while working on the project. It was a shock. I made the decision to carry our project through, but a lot needed to change. I am sure that shooting the film helped us all, including a lot of my father’s former students, cope with our loss and actively process our grief. That movie set was truly everything but ordinary. I accepted the Grand Prix awarded to Inspection at the “Two Theaters” Festival of Polish Radio and Television Theater in Sopot in 2018 with a feeling of great satisfaction but also tremendous loss. I wished my father could stand there in my stead. 

What did your father teach you?

A number of things. He sparked my fascination with history. He made feature films but he also put out a number of historical television plays. He was a remarkable erudite. I pursued a degree in history so that I could effectively face off against him in the heated arguments and disputes we had about the past. He also “infected” me with his passion for film. But above all, he taught me how to view reality as a paradox. He himself was full of contradictions. He was a long distance runner with a temperament of a sprinter. He would often say “I work for the future” and yet he was deeply rooted in the past, where he searched for sources of our ethos and identity. 

You adopted Raginis as your last name to honor a famous family member - captain Władysław Raginis who died by suicide, refusing to lay down his arms at Wizna in September 1939. That battle is known as the Polish Thermopylae.  A commemorative plaque at the battle site reads: Please tell our Homeland that we fought until the end, doing our duty. Can you recall a pivotal moment that helped you decide to take his name? 

It was a slow process. I could tell you jokingly that I was inspired by the novels I read in my youth about Native American warriors taking on new names as part of their rite of passage into adulthood. But seriously – the memory of Władysław Raginis has always been part of the family legend. He was my mother’s uncle; her family came from Kresy– the Eastern borderlands. He died childless. One of my father’s early directing projects was a documentary he made in 1969 entitled Fidelity (Wierność) featuring former soldiers of captain Raginis. Also, my work as a journalist and documentary short director involved meetings with all kinds of people of the underground, and I needed some form of a disguise. So, at some point, I started signing my name as Jacek Raginis. Over time, I adopted it as my alias. I did that in part to preserve the memory of the brave captain, and in part because I concluded that one Polish filmmaker named Królikiewicz was enough. When the burial place of captain Raginis was discovered in Wizna, and his remains were exhumed, I was asked to take a DNA test that confirmed my relationship with the captain. The decision to officially change my name came two years ago, after my father passed away, and after I completed Inspection.

As a director, you don’t shy away from tough historical topics that involve reconciliation with the past. What’s your next project? 

I prefer to not discuss ongoing projects. I can say though that while history remains my primary focus, I am on the lookout for a contemporary screenplay, and who knows - maybe the next festival I attend or another interview I give will bring me together with a screenwriter or a text that I have been waiting for for years. I am easy to find on Facebook, so do reach out. 

The Day of Wrath – Television Theater production based on the play by Roman Brandsteatter, 2019. Directed by: Jacek Raginis-Królikiewicz, Screenplay by: Jacek Raginis-Królikiewicz, Cast: Radosław Pazura (Prior), Rafał Gąsowski (SS Officer Born), Daniel Olbrychski (Home Army Soldier), Jan Marczewski (Emanuel Blatt), Natalia Rybicka (Julia Chomin).

Jacek Raginis-Królikiewicz is a Polish film and television director, a screenwriter, and an author of radio plays. He has a degree in history from the Catholic University of Lublin and in film production from the Łódź Film School. In his work, he focuses on historical events and the related existential and moral dilemmas of an individual. He likes to work in the genre of psychological drama and thriller. Personally, he is the son of a Polish film director Grzegorz Królikiewicz.

Interview in Polish at www.cultureave.com

"To Tame The World" - Interview with creators of "Playing Hard" (in Polish)

The interview with director Kinga Dębska and producer Zbigniew Domagalski conducted by Bożena U. Zaremba.

These are only two small excerpts from a very interesting conversation about Kinga Dębska’s films and her creative process - please follow the link for the entire interview HERE.
/ To tylko dwa male fragmenty rozmowy o filmach i procesie tworczym Kingi Dębskiej - zapraszamy na Culture Avenue do przeczytania calosci TUTAJ.

Jak zrodził się pomysł na film „Zabawa zabawa”?

KD: Zaczęło się od dokumentu „Aktorka” o Elżbiecie Czyżewskiej, który zrobiłam razem z Marią Konwicką, i który porusza też problem jej alkoholizmu. Rozmawiałam z różnymi ludźmi, którzy ją znali i to było ciekawe, bo ona w oczach każdego ze swoich przyjaciół była kimś zupełnie innym. Okazało się, że to jest taka mentalność alkoholika. Alkoholicy fantastycznie kłamią i dostosowują się do sytuacji. Zaczęłam dostrzegać, że wokół mnie jest wiele podobnych kobiet, sama też spotkałam się z tym problemem w rodzinie, zauważyłam, jak często kobiety piją i sobie pomyślałam, że to jest temat dla mnie.

W filmie nie ma oskarżania, moralizatorstwa, usprawiedliwiania. Dlaczego Pani zrobiła ten film?

KD: Chciałam tym kobietom, które nadużywają alkoholu pokazać możliwe drogi, scenariusze, jak to może się skończyć. Chciałam też pokazać, że nie są to tylko panie spod budki z piwem. Żyjemy w świecie silnych kobiet, które są prezeskami firm, szefowymi korporacji, które są na topie, ale to ma też swoją cenę. To samotne picie wieczorami, na umór, jest często tego ceną.

Interview with Damian Nenow, co-director of "Another Day of Life" - Poland's submission to 2020 Oscars

Interview conducted by Mariola Wiktor | Translated by Kamila Radford

Damian Nenov: Nine years of my life.

October 11, 2019 Culture Avenue

A standing ovation at the Cannes festival 2018, admiration for the work described as "is a stunning work with rare directness and strength" in The Hollywood Reporter. Based on Ryszard Kapuściński's book 'Another Day of Life', a Pole - Damian Nenow and a Spaniard - Raúl de la Fuente created a computer animation in 3D technology. The idea seemed very risky: combining animation with documentary in one movie and ‘styling’ it as a comic book.

 Mariola Wiktor: While working on a film about the civil war in Angola according to the book by Ryszard Kapuściński, you were faced with his legend. Have you made any discoveries?

 Damian Nenov: During research, we dug in to what Kapuściński's writing formula was, which was the essence - focusing not on big events, but on a single person participating in them. And that seemed very relevant to us today. My attitude towards Kapuscinski, previously neutral, changed into admiration and pride that one of the greatest writers of the 20th century was a Pole. Of course, I had already learned about him, about his travels and books at school, but at that time their message did not quite reach me. Although I remember that when I read One Day of Life (Jeden Dzien Zycia), images stuck in my memory. For example, the one describing Luanda, the capital of Angola, as a wooden city flooding the streets ...

I will add that Kapuściński, in such a vivid way, described the Portuguese fleeing from Luanda, who packed all their belongings in large wooden boxes. And the reason for their evacuation was Angola regaining independence in 1975, which until that time remained a Portuguese colony.

Yes, Kapuscinski describes the time of unrest and bloody civil war just before gaining independence. I have such "ailment" that I pick up topics and situations that stimulate me creatively from books, films and life events. I remembered scenes, lyrical descriptions, and the wooden city from the book by Ryszard Kapuściński. Later, I noticed the potential, which I love in animation, surreal deformations of the world and playing games with reality.

 Where does the interested in animation come from? Will you say since kindergarten?

(laughs) That’s how it was. I drew, painted, and then went to School of Arts High School in Bydgoszcz, my hometown. As a young boy, I was interested in graphics, but I didn't have a computer at home because we couldn't afford it. I discovered computer animation quite early, and then saw the Cathedral by Tomasz Bagiński. It dawned on me then. I realized that a movie that has an opportunity to win an Oscar can be made at home and can be done by oneself. I realized that almost everything needed to achieve this goal is in our head. I went to the Film School in Łódź and I did many etudes there. But at that time there was no particular major at Filmówka (colloquial for Film School) that would meet my needs. The school was a forge of directors, not of animators. However, I gained the basics and knowledge of film there, and I learned computer graphics myself.

Your earlier short film Paths of Hate, about the life and death struggle of two fighter pilots, was close to an Oscar and has won many festival awards around the world. What does one get from it?

This type of a film festival journey makes its creator recognizable. I never expected so many people to watch the Paths of Hate. A lot of projects come to me precisely because I made this animated short. Thanks to this circulation, Raúl also saw the teaser of my movie.

Raúl de la Fuente is a co-director of One More Day of Life. He came up with the idea of ​​adapting the book. Under what circumstances did you meet?

Raúl knew Kapuscinski's books and was fascinated by them. During his travels in Africa, he visited places described in Another Day of Life. Perhaps this is when the idea of ​​making a documentary film matured in his mind. However, he saw the trailer of the Paths of Hate and liked the way I made this movie. At that time it was a pioneer movie: stylized, and at the same time serious, not cartoonish, with great potential for being linked together with the documentary. We met at the Platige Image studio and that is how it all began. Initially, we dreamed of a full-length war feature movie, but at the same the thought that it was impossible, or that it could not be financed, was knocking on the back of our heads. The whole project took us many years. This is the largest European co-production in terms of animated film. It was great that each of our five co-producers knew Kapuscinski.

Does this type of journalism as practiced by Ryszard Kapuściński still make sense today, in the era of electronic media?

Absolutely yes! I think we miss his approach today, we feel orphaned by him. But it is also a question of how the human mind works, to what extent it is not overwhelmed by this sea of ​​information flooding us. When the screaming of crowds reaches us, it is very difficult to hear and understand an individual, see the entirety through the prism of the individual. And this was Kapuściński's key to getting to know the world. It was no accident that he called himself "translator of cultures". The events in Angola in 1975 have changed him and made him abandon journalism in favor of literature.

 In Angola he was no longer satisfied with PAP like dry messages.

It is a turning point in which the reporter transforms himself into a novelist. And this change interested us, mobilized us to make a film. Kapuscinski once wrote that a single man is a whole universe that can be discovered over and over again, which has an infinite number of ways of expression. The crowd is limited to shouting, protesting, barricades. That's why you can write a novel about a man and never about a crowd.

 It must be said that in 1975 the profession of reporter looked completely different than today.

Yes, perhaps because there was no internet. The world was also more black and white. When one had a passport from a socialist country, one could not afford objectivity and multidimensionality, and plenty of places remained completely inaccessible. Kapuściński exceeded all barriers and restrictions. In addition to curiosity, other factors motivated him. Thanks to his travels, he faced his demons, his own, not only Conrad's, "core of darkness", pictures he remembered from the war as a child. He was addicted to her in his own way. If there was an armed conflict somewhere in the world, Kapuscinski had to be there.

Didn't you have a feeling that by adopting non-fiction literature by means of animation, you are aiming at something wild?

On the contrary. The very formula of Kapuscinski's writing has mobilized us to a hybrid format. Kapuscinski combines poetry, magical realism and facts. He enters the head of an individual and describes the situation in the country and even the fate of the entire continent through the prism of his emotions. We, like him, collide facts with creation. Animation can be both realistic and fantastic, surreal. In my opinion, animation is poetry that will capture what the camera will not see, and what is, for example, in our thoughts, fantasies, fears.

What you are talking about falls under the concept of confusão, which is the key to understanding Kapuscinski's book. Let's explain what's going on.

It's about the world, about a reality that gets out of control, where there are no rules, borders are fluid, people and objects disappear, and death, and overwhelming chaos lurk everywhere. Such situations accompany wars in Syria, the Middle East and Ukraine today. Confusão is born in the minds of people, and then it embraces the entire nation, the continent. It quickly becomes clear that the excess of clutter can be far worse than abundance of ideas for cleaning up. Every move sinks you in. Confusão cannot be fought, it will always come back. To survive, you need to focus, sometimes on a single person. Get to know him, understand him, trust him, and like in the lens, find meaning.

In the common way of thinking, animation is associated with fiction, but by colliding with the documentary, this animation becomes more realistic.

I see it that way. We would like the animation to be even more surreal because of its form, not to try to pretend to be a true narrative. This was the acting part of it, with real people, with facts. Paradoxically, the more the animated layer differed from the documentary, the better they complemented each other. It turned out that the clash of such different worlds creates a story that stimulates imagination and emotions. I imagined a mounting plywood placed somewhere between oneiric reality, realistic scenes and the real human being who stands there and who was there. The strength of such a picture is hybridity, a combination of animation and document.

 And why did you decide on a comic style? Was it because you wanted to reach young people?

Yes, we wanted the film to find an audience among young people who are fascinated by comic book culture. But another important thing is the specificity of the animation itself and the style that I developed while working on Paths of Hate. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is not a traditional cartoon. The way of cropping, mounting, and camera work is different. This is a very realistic and convincing animation. The character's anatomy is authentic, there are no exaggerated expressions here. This style of animation is understood by an adult viewer who expects serious acting from serious war movies rather than infantile cartoons. The styling aspect was noticed by Raúl at my Hate Paths. Animated film, for most viewers, is mostly a cartoon, i.e. Pixar or Disney ... one goes to see it with children and it is always fun. However,  we do not really display those happy moods, because we collide with very serious war topics. Another Day of Life talks about real events, real people.

Was Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman an inspiration for you and Raúl? I am thinking of Carlotta's death scene ...

Yes, but not quite. It has never been a direct inspiration. In Waltz with Bashir, I loved all surreal scenes and I mainly remembered them. It was the same with the book Another Day of Life. And with The Endless Story, my favorite childhood film. When I wrote the scene of Carlotta's death in the script, I didn't have Waltz with Bashir in front of my eyes, although of course there are similarities.

How did you share your work with Raúl de la Fuente? He was responsible for the documentary, you for the animation?

This division seems obvious, it stems from our roots. And that was the way it was done. But the most difficult part of the work turned out to be creating the whole story, inventing it, writing it. It took us over five years and here we shared the work equally. Screenplay sessions were held in Bilbao, Pamplona or near Warsaw. Then there was the documentation in Angola. Very important, because thanks to the photos and conversations held there with the real heroes of war, we knew what to expect and what to base on. About 200 people were involved in the project, and together with the logistics crew, almost 500.

 A gigantic undertaking! Do you think hybrid movies have a future, given such a huge effort?

There is great potential in this portrayal of reality. Not only artistic, but also commercial. Our complex world is bursting with different views and perspectives, so such a combination of various techniques and conventions definitely makes sense.

Three of your movies - Paths of Hate, City of Ruins and Anotherl Day of Life - deal with the topic of war. Is this your obsession? Or maybe the war just sells well and looks interesting in animation?

War fascinates me, because it shows a different lining of the world, demons and human obsessions, it gives a different dimension of perception of reality. This is life in extreme situations, which brings up unexpected emotions in us, darkness, beasts, monsters. The confusão element you were asking about is part of the story shown in our film. A state of chaos, but also a lack of understanding, which results in hatred and destruction.  Fear and ignorance are the source of it.

(...)

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqQKcs2CVDQ

Interview with film critic, Mariola Wiktor, about the APFF 2019 program

Conducted in Polish by Joanna Sokolowska-Gwizdka | Translated to English by Anna Boyet.

Journalistic responsibility and women in Polish cinema
as the two key themes of this year’s Austin Polish Film Festival

(For the original version in Polish click HERE.)

 Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka: You graduated from the University of Łódź with a degree in Polish, and you also pursued theater studies. When did you first get interested in film?

 Mariola Wiktor: When I was in high school. I went to a film festival, and I saw movies that were completely new to me, made in the furthest corners of the world. I immediately craved more, and I wanted to talk about them. So I joined film societies to do just that. And then I enrolled in the Academy of World Cinema. So even though I went on to study Polish and theater studies, cinema was always there with me. I delved into Polish films and adaptations of Polish literature. The turning point came in 1994, when I worked in Chicago as an intern at Polvision, a Polish TV station. I learned all the insider secrets of that new medium. Up until that point, I was a theater and film journalist. At Polvision, I developed, produced, and hosted a weekly culture show called Kram z Muzami [The Muse Stall]. I discovered the power of an image, and realized it could communicate so much more than a written word. When I returned to Poland, I collaborated on student films at the Łódź Film School, and worked on documentaries. I signed up for the Dragon Forum workshop, and learned how to pitch documentary projects. And I started going to film festivals - first in Poland, and then to Cannes, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Venice. I was writing about movies again (press reports, interviews). I joined FIPRESCI, became a festival jury member, and a panel speaker; I hosted meetings, workshops, and was a guest speaker at Wajda’s School. This life swallowed me whole, and it’s been like that for over twenty years.

 JSG: For many years you organized film festivals in the UK and the Cinergia Festival in Łódź. Tell me about it.

 MW: I dove into the deep end with my first ever festival, the 3rd Polish Film Festival in London organized under the auspices of the Polish Culture Institute in 2004/2005. I took it over from Monika Braid, an excellent Polish producer who works in the UK, who was in charge of the programming, and generously agreed to help out a novice like me. It wasn’t easy but I think that’s when I caught the festival bug. Polish cinema was represented across the board (shorts, documentaries, animations, feature films, several generations of film makers) with screenings, primarily for the British audience, at such iconic venues as the Riverside Studio, Soho Myfair, Serpentine Gallery or Barbican. It was a great joy to sell out Polish film screenings there. So when years later Sławek Fijałkowski, who was in charge of the Charlie cinema in Łódź, asked me to come up with a new formula for an existing film festival that would promote top Polish and European films, I jumped at the offer. My eagerness to take on the challenge had a lot to do with a sense of journalistic dissatisfaction that I was struggling with at the time. Film criticism wasn’t high on the priority list at the daily paper I was working for. I felt that developing a series of Cinergia European Cinema Forums (2009-2015), and being able to custom tailor it (I acted as the program and artistic director of Cinergia for seven years) would open up a world of opportunity for me to promote quality cinema. And I would take on a greater responsibility, as well. It was an adventure, facing up to completely new forms of film criticism or journalism, and reaching the audience. We didn’t have much of a budget so our programming had to be very carefully curated. The lineup for each event, which usually included 80-90 movies, with a record high of 200 movies, was never accidental, and individual sections (about 10 or 11) were put together so as to interact with, complement, or confront one another. Because of my wide network of international contacts I was also able to bring to Łódź such icons of European cinema as Marta Meszaros, Otar Josseliani, Peter Greenaway, Andriej Konczalowski, Tinto Brass, Istvan Sabo, and many others.

 JSG: How does Polish film stack up against the European or global trends?

 MW: Polish cinema is gaining recognition and appreciation in festival circles. Some time ago we watched with jealousy the successful rise of the Romanian or Greek new wave, and now I believe it’s the Polish cinema that stirs up interest worldwide, and it’s no longer just the works of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi or Jerzy Skolimowski that are recognizable. This is a direct result of professionalization of the film industry (the rise of young, creative producers with an extensive international network of contacts who get involved in developments, workshops, and various programs; the support of the Polish Film Institute; and the activities of regional film funds), as well as the effect of Ida and recently Cold War by Paweł Pawlikowski. Polish films not only compete in the most prestigious categories at top festivals but they also rake in awards. Looking only at 2018, Mug directed by Małgorzata Szumowska won the Jury Grand Prix – a Silver Bear at the Berlin Festival. In Cannes, where Paweł Pawlikowski took the best director award for Cold War, Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s Fugue had its world premiere. And now let’s take a look at the lineup of this year’s Polish Film Festival in Austin: Agnieszka Holland’s latest Mr. Jones that opened at this year’s Berlinale; Another Day of Life screened at Cannes and won the Best Animated Feature prize awarded by the European Film Academy; Nina – Olga Chajdas’s directorial feature film debut took home awards in Rotterdam and Karlskrone; and Adrian Panek’s Werewolf won the Ecumenical Jury Award and the Audience Award at the Tallin Black Nights Festival in Tallin.

The Austin festival audience will also have a chance to see Krystyna Janda in her award-winning role in Jacek Borcuch’s Dolce Fine Giornata (Best Actress Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival). And last but not least, there is Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi – the winner of this year’s Europa Cinemas Label in Venice, and Poland’s 2020 Oscars submission. All those films are universal and original at the same time, free of burdens of the past; it’s cinema with modern storytelling, appealing and intriguing to a viewer anywhere in the world.

 JSG: This year’s Austin Polish Film Festival will open with the Gdynia’s Golden Lions winner Mr. Jones directed by Agnieszka Holland. This is top world cinema with a historical perspective that tackles the issue of the limits of political power, and the ethics and responsibility of journalists. The movie follows the real life pre-war British journalist Gareth Jones as he uncovers the Great Ukrainian Famine orchestrated by Stalin. What’s your take on the movie?

 MW: Even though Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones is inspired by historical events of the 1930s, it’s just as relevant today. It evokes the Great Famine in Ukraine, and uncovers yet another blank spot in history, shamefully ignored for years not only by the Stalin regime and the subsequent Soviet governments but also by Western European politicians, intellectuals, and journalists who chose to keep the uncomfortable truth under wraps. They did that because they were naive, conformist, self-serving, comfortable, cynical, or reluctant to take risk. Agnieszka Holland holds up the mirror of her film to the media-manipulated world we live in, right here and right now. Analogies drawn from the past sound like warnings. If the media is no longer free, independent from political allegiances, critical toward reality, relentless and tenacious in its search for the truth, we are condemned to propaganda and a fake view of the world, and tragedies such as the Ukrainian famine are likely to happen again because those who provoke them will be able to act with impunity, and the victims will suffer in vain as their suffering will not become a part of the collective memory, will not be recorded in the experience of tragedy passed on from generation to generation. The movie is also significant because it argues with an eternal belief that an individual cannot change the world. Gareth Jones proves that it’s possible even though for him it comes at the highest price.

 JSG: Another movie raising the question of journalistic responsibility is Damian Nenow’s Another Day of Life based on the book by Ryszard Kapuściński.

 MW: The movie, which will also be screened at the Austin Polish Film Festival, focuses on the issue of a journalist’s ethics and responsibility for shaping reality, and our exploration of that reality. It’s another example of a movie about things that do not exist unless they are given a name, recorded, or photographed. A brilliant hybrid of an animated feature and a documentary by the directing duo of Damian Nenow and Raul de la Fuente, Another Day of Life is a daring adaptation of a book by Ryszard Kapuściński with the same title, written after the Polish reporter’s trip to Angola in 1975 to the source of a bloody civil war that broke out after Angola regained its independence. It was then that Kapuściński the reporter morphed into Kapuściński the writer. The role of a note-scribbling journalist, a passive observer of events, proved inadequate to carry the enormous weight of pain, suffering, and atrocities that Kapuściński witnessed first hand. It’s not incidental that animation (with its symbolism, and avoidance of the literal) just like a novel (with its non-linear nature and ambiguity of words) can express ambiguous, indescribable, unnamed emotions; it can peek deep into the thoughts of the characters. Such subtleties cannot be conveyed in a documentary or in an AP dispatch. Another Day of Life is not only about the war in Angola but first and foremost about what that war does to people, how it changes their perspective, intensifies their life, and deepens their experiences.

 JSG: History also makes an appearance in the animated documentary adaptation of Anna Janko’s book A Minor Genocide. It’s a harrowing account of a Nazi-provoked mass murder of residents in a small village near Lublin. How much do we still need to revisit such themes?

 MW: A Minor Genocide directed by Natalia Koryncka-Gruz is not another movie about atrocities of war or an account of a war crime. While the film’s point of departure is the forceful pacification of the Sochy village on June 1, 1943 and the mass murder of civilians, for me its focal point is the inherited trauma. It is about vicarious memories that stem from stories passed down by word of mouth, about fear bred in the bone. And it’s shocking how deep the traumatic experiences of our ancestors linger within us, and how far they echo through the generations. That is the realization we take away from the movie, and in that sense it’s relevant, necessary, and meaningful. Yet again, it’s not incidental that the movie marries elements of drama and documentary to depict extreme boundary situations experienced by anyone who has gone through hell. I am just not sure if the obviously borrowed (from Teodore Adorno, Elisabeth de Fontenay, J.M. Coetzee, or Joon-ho Bong’s movie Okja screened at Cannes) controversial comparison of the Holocaust to industrial animal slaughter that makes an appearance in A Minor Genocide is not misused. I understand that the intent behind resorting to such shock therapy is to back up the pacifist message of the movie, its call for compassion, sensitivity, for empathy toward everything that lives and feels, and for the rejection of killing. The director seems to imply that our insensitivity to the fate of animals has a lot in common with indifference to people’s death in camps. And if she is right, if there is no other way to break through the shell of a viewer’s inertia, then how badly overwrought and desensitized is the world we live in?

 JSG: This year’s Austin film festival will show one more movie that addresses the topic of the media and its responsibility for creating reality. Paweł Borowski’s I Am Lying Now mocks America’s beloved TV shows. The underlying message of this retro futuristic metaphysical thriller is to bring to light the line between fact and fiction in our world. Do you agree?

 MW: I Am Lying Now is a film about voyeurism, about cinema as fiction, about obsession with the consumption of media-generated information. The actors and the singer in Borowski’s reality show sell their privacy, they want to be watched because more popularity means more money. I Am Lying Now invites viewers to reflect on modern life and the mass media. The movie clearly points to the blurring lines between truth and fiction. It shows how eager we are to rely on scraps of information taken out of various, very often radically different contexts; contexts that we sometimes create ourselves. The only thing that matters is what people want to believe in. In that sense, the movie is also about manipulation that’s not necessarily imposed. Borowski shows an unnerving ease with which we succumb to this fictional reality. We are addicted to it because fiction is more interesting and colorful than ordinary life. And it’s not a revelation, it’s a cliché, but the film defends itself by being visually commanding. It shows an alternative reality that does not exist, so it’s fictional but sort of credible at the same time.

 JSG: The 2019 Austin Film Festival will show a number of Polish films made by women, about women’s issues. The lineup includes Playing Hard by Kinga Dębska, 53 Wars by Ewa Bukowska with a spectacular role of Magdalena Popławska, Back Home by Magdalena Łazarkiewicz, Nina directed by Olga Chajdas, or Dolce Fine Giornata starring Krystyna Janda. What do female creators of Polish cinema have in common?

 MW: For the Polish female directors of the movies that will be shown in Austin, one common denominator would certainly be their attempt to depict a new female protagonist. A woman who is strong, charismatic, courageous, stereotype defying, who was traditionally overshadowed by a man, and now has finally been noticed by Polish filmmakers. The films that particularly stand out in this context are Olga Chajdas’s Nina and Ewa Bukowska’s 53 Wars. I would definitely throw Jacek Burcuch’s Dolcie Fine Giornata in there as well – a man’s movie about an unconventional woman. It’s the first time such stories and main characters take center stage in Polish movies. And all offer brilliant performances by Julia Kijowska, Magdalena Popławska, and Krystyna Janda. The main character of Nina (Julia Kijowska) is a complete antithesis of the stereotypical Polish self-sacrificing exemplary wife and mother - a self-assured woman who follows her own instincts, needs, and desires, discovers her own sexuality, and is not afraid to be herself. Anna (Magdalena Popławska) in 53 Wars suffers from PTSD. The wife of a war correspondent, teetering on the brink of insanity, she cannot cope with living in constant uncertainty, waiting for a call from her husband who puts his life at risk and neglects his suffering family. And last but not least – the excellent performance of Krystyna Janda as Maria Linde in Dolcie Fine Giornata. Janda’s character is a liberated woman, a respected Noble prize winner, a Polish writer, a European intellectual living a quiet life in Tuscany, who does and says whatever she wants, and lives however she likes. She breaks the stereotypes of age, race, and political correctness, and has to bear the painful consequences of her actions, but at least she lives her life to the fullest, does not shy from reflection, and makes her own choices.

 JSG: And last but definitely not least – we have to mention the intimate and unpretentious Corpus Christi by Jan Komasa, showered with awards in Venice and Gdynia, where the director got a standing ovation, and the audience would not let him off the stage. Corpus Christi is Poland’s submission to the Oscars. Why is this movie so powerful?

 MW: There is a universal appeal to Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi. The film touches on a subject matter that a lot of people, particularly young people all over the world can identify with. Namely, it looks into the need to belong to a community, and a need for spirituality. Both of these are very hard to come by in today’s materialistic humdrum world that’s almost completely devoid of authority. Bartosz Bielenia gives a virtuoso performance as Daniel  - a marginalized outcast who after serving his sentence at a juvenile prison starts impersonating a priest, and becomes an important member of a parish community. Because of his inherent empathy he knows how to interact with parishioners, how to bring people together to do good, how to forgive, and how to accept. The film screened at the top festivals all over the world, including Venice and Toronto, and it has been lauded as an important, meaningful work of art that embraces modern society’s search for spirituality while distancing itself from phony faith and institutionalized Church. Because for Komasa, religious beliefs are only real when they reject the pretense of ritual and blind faith. It’s a bold, brilliantly sketched therapeutic morality play.