Two Turns in History History and film

Abstract

This article is an attempt to synthetically present the two greatest crises of the post-1989 Poland: the events and phenomena of the first year of transition (1990) and the social unrest of the pandemic period (2020-2022). These 'turns of history' became the inspiration for filmmaking exemplified in this text. The author argues for undertaking a broader research in the context of both the knowledge of the past and the art of filmmaking. He is concerned with the difficulties young people might encounter in assimilating contemporary Polish history claiming that the best way to generate the desired interest is through a cinematic masterpiece. Although the history of the post-1989 Poland did not bring wars and dramatic conflicts on the scale of a thousand years of the history of the state and nation, the extraordinary events of this period can provide inspiration for filmmakers.