An award winning film Silent Land by Polish director Aga Woszczyńska was screened in Liverpool.
“Silent Land“ screened at The Quarry in Love Lane. Afterwards there was a Q&A with director, Aga Woszczyńska and a panel discussion with representatives, leaders and activists from Merseyside organisations.
The film touched upon themes of power, privilege and denial between people of different migration status and socio-economic class. It was organised by Cinema Social Club (CSC) and Polish Migrants Organise for Change (POMOC) with support from Cinema Nation, Heart of Glass and Merseyside Polonia.
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Founder of CSC, Honorata Mikołajew told the ECHO : "I wanted to create an inclusive budget-friendly cinema experience where you can watch a unique European movie and openly discuss and interpret what's being portrayed. CSC project is for all cinema lovers who seek to confront challenging topics and crave intellectual discussions”.
The film is about a bourgeois couple, Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Żulewska) who arrive at a holiday villa and discover the swimming pool is empty. A migrant worker sent to fix it suffers an accident setting off a chain of events shaking the moral foundations of this seemingly perfect couple.
This screening is the first in a series of events in Liverpool using cinema to spark conversations about pressing social and political issues. After they discussed topics around discrimination, including racism and migrant rights, and how they can support local community organisations to improve equality for all. The director joined in via Zoom.
Co-founder, Magda Fabianczy of POMOC said: "We believe through art we can build relationships and alliances between Eastern European migrants and other communities. The screening is a fantastic way of opening a discussion with partners and a wider public on how we can collectively uproot racial and class injustices in Liverpool”.
Marzena Zukowska said: “For POMOC, the event was a huge success and showed how powerful art, culture and cinema is in exploring hard-hitting issues like immigrant rights. Audience members walked away with concrete actions they could take to get more involved with local organising.
“Through collaborations like this, our vision is to build a more equitable society in Liverpool and the UK. One which anyone regardless of immigration status or where they’re from can thrive”.
Film's director, Aga Woszczyńska graduated from Applied Social Science and the Polish National Film School in Lodz - Directing Department. For many years she has been working as assistant director in Poland and abroad.
Her short films have won awards at numerous film festivals. Her graduation short film "Fragments" premiered at Cannes Film Festival in Directors' Fortnight. "Silent Land” is her first feature film.
Monika Rodriguez co- co-founder of Cinema Nation said: "We are thrilled to continue our support of the work Honorata does in community cinema."
The film is in Polish/English/Italian and French with English subtitles. It’s available to watch virtually. For information visit: https://www.modernfilms.com/ https://www.modernfilms.com/
The next discussion event is the December 4 screening of the 1981 film ‘Blind Chance’ directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. For more information visit: @polishmigrantsorganise on Instagram or Merseyside Polonia on Facebook.
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