Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on April 14, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the East Central European Center and the Harriman Institute for a screening of “Home Sweet Home” (2025), with an introductory lecture by Paulina Duda. The event is part of the East Central European Center’s Spring 2026 film screening and lecture series: After 2020: New Directions in Polish Cinema, organized by Chrisopher Caes and Cindy Sang. This series explores how Polish artists, filmmakers, and cultural initiatives have responded to sociopolitical issues in Poland and beyond.
Despite its unflinching portrayal of domestic violence, Wojtek Smarzowski’s latest film, “Home Sweet Home,” became an immediate box office hit in Poland. Consistent with his earlier oeuvre, Smarzowski foregrounds deeply entrenched yet often obscured social issues through an unorthodox style – here, his use of montage – that viscerally confronts audiences. This talk asks at what point socially engaged cinema risks shifting from art to advocacy, and considers why Smarzowski’s remarkable domestic box office success – even in the era of streaming platforms – contrasts so sharply with his limited international recognition.
Program Note
All starts very well – Gośka meets Grzesiek online and he seems to be just the right man. Caring, funny, and attentive, he offers her an escape from life with her toxic, alcoholic mother. Soon enough, however, the promise of safety and love gives way to control and escalating violence, exposing how abuse can hide behind the façade of an ordinary “good home” and revealing the social and institutional silences that allow it to persist. Through an extraordinary montage structure, Gośka’s deteriorating life unfolds along two possible trajectories, highlighting the structural and emotional difficulty of escaping cycles of violence and psychological abuse. (Runtime: 107 minutes, Polish with English subtitles)
Paulina Duda is an Assistant Professor in the New Media Arts Department at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw. She has previously taught at Brown University and Duke University, and received her PhD from the University of Michigan. Her scholarly work focuses on networking efforts between the Polish film industry and Western countries during the Cold War, film censorship and distribution under Communism, the director’s role in society, and the aesthetics of music videos. She has published articles, translations, and reviews in The Polish Review, Studies in Eastern European Cinema, East European Film Bulletin, and Words Without Borders. She also serves as a jury member for the long-standing Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival. She is the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, including those from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), the Kościuszko Foundation, the Rackham International Research Award, and the Copernicus Endowment Fellowship.
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