The thirteenth edition of the Ciakpolska Film Festival and the third edition of the Great Classics Festival of Polish Cinema are back in Rome from 11 to 20 November 2025. Exceptional guest filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, protagonist of a retrospective entitled The different look. At the Palazzo delle Esposizioni there is a selection that crosses most of its filmography. Yesterday we met the director for a tight dialogue between politics, cinema and social issues.
Holland is an author who has never compromised: his films question the present, his injustices and his stunts. The meeting also confirmed this vocation, touching heterogeneous themes: from technological changes to new autocracies, passing through the cinema system and the ongoing wars. About the impact of technology on society, the director explains: “The advent of the Internet and social media has changed everything: our way of living, communicating, even our mental landscape. It was an almost anthropological change. Today we can read a book on a tablet or on a computer, things that were not possible before. On the web there is such an amount of information that it is difficult to distinguish what is real from what is not, and this facilitates the spread of absurd complottist theories. Our critical consciousness has become thin.”.
Then continue: “Obviously there are also immense opportunities: education, knowledge, possibilities for those who come from disadvantaged contexts to face the world and make their voice heard. But it is essential to educate people to use social media, because the risk of manipulation is very high. Just think about how Hitler used the radio to manipulate public opinion. Today we have a thousand more tools to do the same. It is easy to disguise the news, build fake narratives.” Concludes: “Without falling into complotism, what I think is that few big techs manage our lives. Europe is also in crisis for this: it has slept too much, it has not noticed the speed of change and has delivered its data to the American technological ecosystem. And we can’t afford this anymore.”.
On the role of cinema compared to contemporary conflicts, Stalin’s L’ombra director indicated a possible path: “Pontially yes, cinema can tell the wars. But I fear that many of us are now corrupted by money, which is a direct emanation of power. I see very few films able to tell with clarity the conflicts of today. The documentary, on the other hand, remains a very powerful instrument, although not having the same diffusion of fiction. It’s immediate, direct. Of course, if you want to denounce the distortions of society – even in democratic countries – it is difficult to obtain funding. But it’s not an excuse. Today you can make movies even with little money. The risk of self-censorship, however, is high. I have the feeling that European cinema is cradling in products with guaranteed commercial success. But there is not only the box office: if you have something to say, you have to have the courage to do so.”.
The director then addresses a thought to young authors and their relationship with political commitment: “I would like to see more young people involved in the social, in the dramas of the present. That they don’t get embarrassed by politics. To finance Green Border I did not turn to institutions, but to private production houses. And today these possibilities are less and less. Green Border did not have a capillary distribution, we did not reach the audience we were hoping for. The Polish government attacked the film hard, but for us it was the best possible promotion: It meant we hit the mark. I still thank the institutions for free advertising. I wanted to show not only a political twist, but a suffering humanity, the story of a desperate family looking for a better life.”.
It then returned to the value of the family in Green Border: “I think cinema can start from below to talk to everyone. The film’s family is Syrian, but it could have been Polish or Ukrainian. During the set I created a strong bond with the actors, really Syrian refugees. I’ve been told a lot of stories. I myself was a political refugee in the 1980s, in France. It was not a dramatic escape like theirs, but psychologically we understood. In Syria they were established actors. Empathy is born when you show the true feelings of people, their destinies. Not when you show only yourself: that is narcissism”.
On the change in Poland after the release of Green Border, the director is clear: “Nothing has changed. In fact, it got worse. The state tried to hide his illegal methods before, but today he doesn’t even try. racist practices are now accepted. People of different colour or ethnicity do not have the same rights as Polish citizens. President Tusk has approved a law that allows the army to shoot migrants at the border, even without real dangers, without consequences. The climate is general aversion to the different.” He added: “Tusk said that the Declaration of Human Rights died. I think our democratic system is dead. You exploit immigration as propaganda, to ride discontent and get votes. It is a widespread trend in Europe, especially in the East. We build fear, we polarize the clash.”.
Then on his country of origin he confesses: “I have a deep connection with my land. But living in many countries I have lost something of my roots, although I have found others. And then there is not only one Poland: There are many inside. After the fall of communism I was a popular director, I reached different audiences. But with the polarization of the last few years I lost half of the spectators. I became a public enemy for the other faction. As in social media, everyone lives in their own bubble and does not listen to others. Nobody wants to negotiate, find common solutions. We’re like trenches, barricades in our bubbles. It is as if in Poland they lived together many different countries within each other. And I don’t like that.”.
With regard to the revolutionary characters and underdogs that populate his cinema, Holland explained: “I love rebel anarchists. In Charlatan I tell the story of a herbalist after the war: a man with extraordinary abilities, opposed by government and society. I care about your stubbornness in defending your ideas. I have a character preference like that. I think cinema is an authentic expression of freedom, even when it faces ambiguous figures in our history. It is one of his tasks: to investigate the past and therefore ourselves.”.
L’articolo CiakPolska Film Festival – Meeting with Agnieszka Holland proviene da SentieriSelvaggi.
