POST-WAR POLISH CINEMA AND POSTMODERNISM
- UNDERGRADUATE DISSERTATION

Writing this dissertation was certainly a challenge and I put countless hours into it in order to make it as close to perfect as I could, but the end result is something that I will certainly be proud of for the rest of my life. 

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I was inspired to write about this subject after seeing a Film 4 article about Post-War Polish artists creating their own cultural renditions of classic Western movie posters. I have always been a big fan of writing about history, particularly the Cold War, but I felt as if I wanted to take a new direction and write about a time and culture that I knew virtually nothing about. The primary subject of this dissertation is Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film, Ida - A melancholy drama about a girl training to be a nun suddenly finding out she is of Jewish heritage. The story is set in 1960's Poland at a time when the country was just getting used to standing on its own two feet again. Its an extremely interesting film that explores many themes surrounding its contexts, and its easy to see why it came to such international acclaim. 

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One of the hardest things about writing this dissertation was accessing academic reading that was directly linked to my subject - In my feedback I was praised for choosing such a unique subject, but that did not come without its troubles. I often found myself lost in a sea of unrelated texts and at points worried if this subject was worth writing about at all. In retrospect however I am incredibly pleased that I persevered as I do not feel as if something like this will be written about again, at least in the way that I did. 

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Full Title:

An Investigation into Polish National Cinema

How and Why does Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida (2013) Recycle Cinematic Techniques Used in Early Post-War Polish Cinema