6:30pm on 18th Feb at POSK Gallery, Hammersmith, 238-246 King Street, W6 0RF

FREE, but reservation required via Eventbrite – Out of the Limelight – UK Film Premiere Tickets, Sun 18 Feb 2024 at 18:30 | Eventbrite

The film has a soundtrack in Polish and French, but with English subtitles.

Out of the Limelight, a documentary by director Rafael Lewandowski, tells the rich and fascinating story of Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski, who set up a Polish high school in France (the only Polish high school operating legally in occupied Europe).

The film will be briefly introduced by Lewandowski and will be screened during the Heart of Freedoms exhibition at POSK Gallery.

A philosopher, writer, and poet who spent most of his life in France, like many other independent activists, Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski was forced to emigrate because of the political climate. He was active, but out of the limelight. In spite of this, he had a tremendous impact on the creation of a strong, independent Poland through his cultural activities.

Forced to emigrate due to political reasons, in 1914 he committed himself fully to teaching Polish in France. His lectures turned out to be the cornerstone of Polish language studies in France.

After the outbreak of the war, he became a member of the Polish resistance movement in France, a chairman of the Polish Red Cross, which helped refugees, and the president of the Welfare Society for the Poles in France.

Arrested on 19 March 1943 by the Italian fascists and handed over to the Nazis, after a period of brutal interrogation he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

When the war was over, he decided to stay in France with his family and organise assistance for Polish university students abroad. He was a very active publisher, lecturer, a general secretary of the Polish Society for History and Literature in Paris. He engaged in social, political, and scientific activity, promoting Polish culture and building good French– Polish relations. Zaleski helped Polish emigrants and scientists, and he was an ardent supporter of Polish affairs in France.

“The film by Rafael Lewandowski is a multifaceted story of Zygmunt Lubicz-Zaleski – a deserved humanist and social activist who was fully committed to the Polish cause, to which he sacrificed his entire adult life. He lived in the turbulent times when Poland regained independence and struggled hard to defend it.

Zaleski supported his homeland from a distance, working tirelessly as the ambassador and animator of Polish culture in Western Europe. Initially forced to leave the country, he later made a conscious decision to remain an emigrant, and he spent most of his life in France, continuing his efforts to promote Polish culture and science. His emotional and physical links with his homeland never ceased to exist: he often visited Poland and always carried it with him in his heart.

Out of the Limelight restores the memory of this unjustly forgotten researcher of literature of the Romantic period, translator, teacher, musician, poet, and the good spirit of the Polish cause in the West. Lewandowski’s documentary not only shows Zaleski from an interesting perspective, but also reveals to us the fate of his noble family, which was deeply interwoven with the history of Poland. It is a moving story of various faces of patriotism, of strength of family traditions, of Poles as Europeans. Out of the Limelight is an important voice in the debate on our identity. Everyone who feels concerned about Poland in the context of Europe should watch the film.” -Dr. Marcin Lutomierski (literature expert, historian of Polish literature and culture, researcher of works by emigrants)

Rafael Lewandowski is a director and writer born to a Polish-French family. A graduate of the Faculty of Film Directing of the famous French film school La Fémis, he is the author of more than 10 documentaries including Cela, Piosenka i życie (Children of Solidarnosc), Cień na duszy (A Shadowed Gaze), and Minkowski | Saga). His feature debut, Kret (The Mole) (starring B. Szyc, M. Dziędziel, and W. Pszoniak), gained much appreciation and won awards at national and international film festivals. In 2012, he was awarded the Polityka weekly’s Passport Award, and in 2015 the French Ministry of Culture decorated him with the Honour of Chevalier of French Art and Literature. He lives in Warsaw, constantly working on feature and documentary projects.

Read more about Rafael Lewandowski here: BIOGRAPHY | Rafael Lewandowski

The film will be shown at POSK on Sunday 18th February 2024 at 6.30pm.

FREE, but booking required via Eventbrite:

Out of the Limelight – UK Film Premiere Tickets, Sun 18 Feb 2024 at 18:30 | Eventbrite

The film has a soundtrack in Polish and French, but with English subtitles.