„Polski my naród, polski ród...”
Our Songbook:“We Are the Polish Nation, the Polish Family …”Joanna Turowicz Talks To Artur Żmijewski About His Video Film

Summary/Abstract: In the summer of 2003 Artur Żmijewski was visiting the mother of his friend in a hospital in Tel Aviv. He was surprised by the fact that four out of six patients sharing the room were emigrants from Poland. This particular coincidence was responsible for the making of the video film Our Songbook which presents elderly Jewish women who were forced to leave Poland women singing Polish songs. The film is very simple and full of specific charm. In the context of Polish anti-Semitism and the Jedwabne case, it is significant that three of them (one of who refuses to speak Polish) wanted to appear in this documentary. By singing the songs of their youth the women recalled various images from their past which they shared with Żmijewski. The intention of the film, however, was not to talk about issues related to the Holocaust and the expulsion of Jews from Poland, but to touch a fragment of the present, a living piece of Polish history in Israel, which will soon die out.

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