'Gierek' (2021) by Michał Węgrzyn: Nostalgia for the People's Republic of Poland and Contemporary Culture Wars

• In Event: The Memory of the Polish People's Republic in Genre Cinema

Abstract

In my speech, I would like to look at the specific film biography of Edward Gierek, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party in 1970-1980. He is the best remembered Polish communist leader. However, "Gierek" (2021) by Michał Węgrzyn proposed a kind of fairy tale about an impeccable hero against whom his associates, the Soviets and American bankers conspire. In this vision, the 1970s became an unfulfilled "golden age", a positive point of reference for post-transformation reality, and Gierek is the only leader who sided with society and the nation in the fight against the authorities. I want to analyze the film in the context of restorative nostalgia, as defined by Svyetlana Boym, and I want to consider the reasons for the outright rejection of this film by both right-wing and left-wing critics.

Author

• Piotr Zwierzchowski, Kazimierz Wielki U (Poland)