Mroz, Matilda (2012) Secrets and spies: Communist histories in recent Polish cinema. In: Suffering, Agency, and Memory in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Films. Memory at War Conference, 22- 23 Mar 2012, Theologisch Instituut, Groningen, Netherlands. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

My paper will examine how members of the Polish secret police and security services, and those who collaborated with them, have been portrayed in recent Polish cinema. Engagements with this aspect of the Communist past have surfaced in a variety of genres, including romantic thriller (Korowod, Jerzy Stuhr, 2007) and black comedy (80 Millionow, Waldemar Krzystek, 2011). I will discuss Jan Kidawa-Blonski’s Rozyczka (2010), Poland’s answer to The Lives of Others, von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film about the STASI and their observation of East German citizens. I will trace the particular configurations of suffering and victimhood enacted through the three main characters of Rozyczka: the member of the secret police (SB), his lover who agrees to collaborate with him (the eponymous Rozyczka), and the dissident intellectual that they spy on. I will explore the film’s representation of the Polish political crisis of 1968, which saw the mass emigration of Polish Jews, and suggest what this portrayal may indicate about contemporary Polish memory politics. I will also explore memory, suffering and the body in Borys Lankosz's film Rewers (2009).

Item Type:	Conference or Conference Paper (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	suffering, agency and memory in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian films and novels
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History D History General and Old World > DJ Netherlands (Holland) > DJK Eastern Europe P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Humanities & Social Sciences > Department of Communications & Creative Arts School of Humanities & Social Sciences
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 09:23
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9632

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