Shadows of the Empire – film screening and Q&A with the creators

We have the pleasure of inviting you to a film screening within The Rise of Eastern Culture / Another Dimension festival:

“Shadows of the Empire” (“Cienie Imperium”) and a Q&A with director Karol Starnawski and screenwriter Tomasz Grzywaczewski

August 31st, 2019, 6:30 PM
Forum cinema, 5 Legionowa Street
free tickets available on two dates: from August 19th (from 5 PM) and from August 26th (from 5 PM) at the Forum cinema’s box office, 5 Legionowa Street

festival’s website with complete schedule

Shadows of the Empire
dir. Karol Starnawski, Poland 2018, 76’

A documentary inspired by Tomasz Grzywaczewski’s book „Granice marzeń” (“The Borders of Dreams”), telling a complicated history of post-Soviet states and their inhabitants. Karol Starnawski directs the camera on people involved in forgotten border conflicts caused by the collapse of the USSR. It is also a bitter image of the imperial attempts of today’s Russia, aimed at making neighbors completely dependent and thus maintaining the former sphere of influence.

Can you live in the shadow of an empire? This question, like a boomerang, comes back in each of the three stories presented in the film. Although their heroes are divided by hundreds of kilometers, nationality and age, they are connected by a similar fear-based experience, but also hope for a peaceful and better life. The Soviet Union disappeared from the map 30 years ago, but Alexei from Nagorno-Karabakh, Timur from Ukraine and Alexander from Georgia still live in uncertainty, every day facing the eponymous shadows of the “empire”. The heroes’ tales show the complicated history of the post-Soviet states and their inhabitants, who, despite the great politics, try to reverse their fate and follow the dreams of living in peace.

The originator and co-writer of the film is Tomasz Grzywaczewski, the author of the book “The Borders of Dreams”. Leaving for Nagorno-Karabakh in 2015, he did not suppose that a year later there would be an escalation of the conflict unprecedented for two decades. Being in the winter of 2015 on the Donetsk front, he did not suspect that he was watching the first act of a prolonged dormant war. He saw, however, the everyday life in the shadow of continuous conflicts.

Both the book and the film are personal stories of those who, a quarter of a century after the fall of the Soviet empire, dream of normality, of having passports that allow them to travel freely, of a currency that has some value, and of national teams starting in the championships and games on the same rights like others – under their own flags. And above all, they dream of peace…

Karol Starnawski (born 1990) – director and screenwriter, graduate of the National Film, Television and Theater School in Łódź. Author of several short documentary and feature films, including: “Droga Karolu …”, “Kawaler”, “Przedziały”. Winner of awards at film festivals. Assistant to the director Jan P. Matuszyński with the well-received film “Ostatnia rodzina”. “Shadows of the Empire” is his full-length documentary debut.

Tomasz Grzywaczewski – journalist, writer and PhD student in international law, specializing in post-Soviet unrecognized countries. “Koncept” magazine’s editor-in-chief. The youngest Polish member of the prestigious American The Explorers Club. The originator of the journalistic and travel actions, including Long Walk Plus Expedition – an expedition from Siberia to India in the footsteps of Polish refugees from the Gulag, and Dead Road 1953-2013 – an expedition to the Transpolar Railway Line, called the Way of the Dead. A participant of the expedition to Cameroon “Vivat Polonia 2016” in the footsteps of the Polish explorer Stefan Szolc-Rogoziński. Author of scientific and analytical publications in the field of international law and international relations. Author of books “Przez dziki Wschód”, „Życie i śmierć na Drodze Umarłych” (2015) and „Granice marzeń. O państwach nieuznawanych”. Co-founder of the Horizon Agency reporting-analytical agency.