Agnieszka Holland Discusses Minneapolis Victims and American Media Representation

In a powerful address at the Göteborg Film Festival, Oscar-nominated director Agnieszka Holland emphasized the enduring importance of truth in today’s information-saturated world while acknowledging its vulnerability to manipulation.

“Truth is still important, but it’s easy to twist,” said Holland, who received the festival’s Honorary Dragon Award. “It happened during Stalin’s propaganda and Goebbels’ propaganda. It showed how easy it is to change the meaning of words and how fragile they are.”

The renowned Polish filmmaker drew parallels between historical propaganda and contemporary media manipulation, noting similarities in how facts can be distorted for political purposes. She cited her 2019 film “Mr. Jones” as an example of truth-telling in the face of willful ignorance. The film chronicles the true story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who reported on the Holodomor, the Stalin-engineered famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s.

“He tried to tell the truth about what was going on, but no one was interested,” Holland explained. “When the media are corrupted and play with the truth regarding political and ideological agendas, democracy dies. We are in that moment right now.”

Holland advocated for a return to factual reporting in an age where subjective truth claims often override verifiable reality. “A fact is not abstract. It happens. You see a dead person – that’s a fact. We have to be humble now and realize that ‘truth’ is different for different people. So let’s stick to the facts.”

Known for her politically charged filmmaking, Holland’s recent works have continued to court controversy. Her unconventional Kafka biopic “Franz” was Poland’s submission for the Academy Awards, while her film “Green Border,” depicting the humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, sparked intense backlash in her native country.

“It provoked incredibly violent attacks from Polish authorities and some far-right members of the Polish population,” Holland revealed. “There were a lot of threats. In Poland, I had to travel with bodyguards, which was one of the funniest experiences I’ve had.”

The security detail proved challenging during the film’s Warsaw premiere. “So many people were hugging me and grabbing my hand – apparently the worst thing that can happen to a bodyguard,” she recounted with humor. “By the end of the evening, they were sweating. They said it was the worst experience in their professional lives.”

During her festival appearance, Holland also reflected on how her difficult post-war childhood shaped her artistic sensibility. Born in Warsaw in 1948, she grew up amid the city’s physical and psychological ruins.

“The experiences of my parents were very intense. The trauma they lived through marked them forever. It also marked me somehow,” she said. “I was a witness to their weakness and to their strength, to their vitality and their depression, and it certainly made me more mature and tolerant.”

Holland’s father, a prominent journalist and Communist Party member, faced his own disillusionment with the system he had supported. “He was very disappointed when the truth about Stalin’s crimes became public, and he became a party dissident. In 1961 he was arrested, and he committed suicide during the investigation.”

Holland’s international career began unexpectedly when she left Poland to promote her film “Provincial Actors.” She was in Sweden when martial law was imposed in Poland in 1981, an event that would later inspire her daughter Kasia Adamik’s film “Winter of the Crow.”

Despite her stature as the director of acclaimed films including “Europa Europa,” “The Secret Garden,” and “Washington Square,” Holland remains focused on her current and future work rather than past accomplishments. When asked which of her films gives her the most satisfaction, she simply replied: “Always the last.”

Though Holland acknowledges that cinema’s cultural influence has diminished since the 1980s, she maintains an unexpected optimism about the future of filmmaking and its ability to unite audiences in challenging times.

“Now, when the world has become complicated and dangerous again, maybe it’s when a new generation of filmmakers will emerge and make people go to the cinema again to have the collective experience of receiving important images and important messages,” she concluded. “After every disaster in human history, something good has come out of it. If we survive as a planet, the next step will be the new progress. That is my optimism.”