Masłowska and Jude. The beautiful new world

July 18, 2025, 18.00

We invite you to a meeting during which the world of literature will meet the world of cinema, and their intersection will be pop culture. Dorota Masłowska and Radu Jude will talk about “Polishness” and “Romanianness” and will consider where culture ends and entertainment begins, and whether one excludes the other. The meeting will be moderated by Dr. Miłosz Stelmach.    

During the event we will talk about the limits of what we call pop culture, entertainment, but also artistic creation. We will discuss the culture of Romania and Poland in collision with the realities of transformation and the new “beautiful” world of capitalism. We will examine what myths and dreams connect “Polishness” and “Romanianness.”

Dorota Masłowska mixes orders, draws from pop culture, and is sensitive to the changing language, recording its tensions, transformations and boundaries. Likewise, Radu Jude is not afraid to be inspired by social media or the language of the street, but just as often he draws on works of old cinema, literary language, such as 19th century works, and mixes them with cultural clichés and kitsch. The protagonists of Radu Jude and Dorota Masłowska are united by the myth of individualism, dreams of a liberal, beautiful new reality and the starting point, which is the transformation and the promises made on that occasion. In the view of both guests of our meeting, they turn out to be a pipe dream, especially when confronted with the realities of capitalism.

Masłowska speaks in interviews about the great tower of Babel, created by a mixture of concepts, languages and attitudes, which she also transfers to the pages of her books. Radu Jude talks in his films about salvation that does not come, about dreams that cannot be fulfilled, which are taken over by successive generations, drowning in life's drowning in life’s quixotism. What will result from the meeting of these original creative personalities? It will be possible to find out soon, during a discussion at the ICC.

The number of places is limited. The order of appearance counts. 

The meeting will be translated into Polish Sign Language (PJM).

In the “Pod Kruki” room you can use the induction loop more information about the loop at the ICC

Radu Jude – director and screenwriter, creator of short and feature films, as well as commercials. His short film “The Tube with a Hat” (2006) was the most awarded film of its kind in the history of Romanian cinema. As for features, he debuted with the picture “The Happiest Girl in the World” in 2009. He has won a number of film awards, including the Golden Bear for “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” (2021), the Silver Bear for directing the picture “Aferim!” (2015), the Locarno Special Jury Prize for “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” (2023), and the Silver Bear for screenplay in the Berlinale 2025 main competition for “Kontinental '25”

Dorota Masłowska – author of novels, dramas, columns and song lyrics. Her debut novel “Snow White and Russian Red” brought her the Paszport Polityki Award, the Złote Pióro Sopot Award and a nomination for the Nike Award. It was later awarded to her second novel, “The Queen's Peacock” Masłowska's plays have also often found their way to the theater, with stage productions of “A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians”, “All's Good Between Us” and the drama “Bowie in Warsaw,” among others. The writer has published in “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “Lampa” magazine, “Przekrój” and “Wysokie Obasy”, among others. Her novels “Snow White and Russian Red” and “Inni ludzie” also lived to see film adaptations.      

Dr. Miłosz Stelmach – editor-in-chief of the film magazine “Ekrany”, assistant at the Institute of Audiovisual Arts, Jagiellonian University, Project Manager of the National Science Center's Etude competition (2017), recipient of The Ryochi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF, 2014 and 2015) and the Polish Film Institute (2017). In his academic work, he deals with the subject of film modernism and the transformations of contemporary art cinema.

The exhibition “One eye laughs, the other cries. Art from Romania in the Collection of Ovidiu Şandor” is co-organized by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow and the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw.

Event within the framework of the Romania-Poland Cultural Season 2024-2025

The Romania-Poland Cultural Season 2024-2025 is organized by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Institute of Culture, on the Romanian side, and by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Bucharest, on the Polish side.