Discussion with Jerzy Domaradzki and special Screening of Andrzej Wajda's masterpiece The Promised Land
The ANU Centre for European Studies and the Embassy of Poland are delighted to invite you to an In Conversation session with Jerzy Domaradzki and a special screening of The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana, dir. Andrzej Wajda), exploring the connections between nineteenth-century industrial Europe and Australia’s own experience of industrialisation, migration and multiculturalism.
More than a screening of an acclaimed European film, the evening invites you to see The Promised Land in a new light. Wajda’s story of ambition and fortune-seeking in industrial Łódź raises questions that still matter today: about migration and mobility, life in a multicultural society, industrialisation and the growth of cities, capitalism and business ethics. Its three protagonists, a Pole, a German and a Jew, join forces to build a factory, which raises questions about leadership and entrepreneurship, the responsibilities that come with power and success, and who is left behind, from factory workers to the women whose lives are shaped by these ambitions. It also invites us to reflect on Australia’s own history and multicultural identity, and on the role migrants have played as builders, entrepreneurs and leaders of their communities and the nation.
Before the screening, filmmaker Jerzy Domaradzki, who worked as Assistant Director on The Promised Land, will share his insights into the making of the film and why it continues to resonate with audiences. Having emigrated to Australia in the 1980s, he will also reflect on migration, identity and social change, and on Australia’s past and present as seen by someone who knows both European and Australian society.
This event is organized with the support of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Jean Leadership Emerging from Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Gender in Australia and the EU, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Film synopsis
The Promised Land (Ziemia obiecana, 1975), directed by Andrzej Wajda and based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer Władysław Reymont, is one of the masterpieces of European cinema. Set in the rapidly industrialising Polish city of Łódź in the late nineteenth century, the film follows three ambitious young entrepreneurs – a Pole, a German and a Jew – as they pursue wealth and success in the ruthless world of industrial capitalism. Through its powerful portrayal of ambition, social inequality, multiculturalism and the human cost of economic progress, The Promised Land offers a compelling exploration of themes that remain strikingly relevant today.
Andrzej Wajda (1926–2016) was a film and theatre director, screenwriter and production designer, and one of the most outstanding figures in the history of world cinema. He received an Honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 2000. He is known for films such as Ashes and Diamonds (1958), The Promised Land (1975), Man of Marble (1977), Man of Iron (1981) and Katyń (2007). He was born on 6 March 1926 in Suwałki and died on 9 October 2016 in Warsaw. The year 2026, the centenary of his birth, is dedicated in Poland to his memory and legacy.
Jerzy Domaradzki (b. 1943) is a Polish film director, screenwriter and film educator. He is a graduate of the University of Warsaw and the National Film School in Łódź. In the 1980s he emigrated to Australia, where he continued his filmmaking career and taught directing. His most notable works include the multi-award-winning The Big Run (1981), Tailor’s Planet (1983) and The Fifth Season (2012). He was an assistant director on The Promised Land.
The film is provided by the Documentary and Feature Film Studio (WFDiF), the rights holder of the film.