Miedzylesie, au milieu des bois

“For me, Poland had always meant summer holidays at my grandparents’. For them, I was the little girl to whom they gave krowki (small caramels), before taking her to play in the fields near grandfather’s beehives. The years went by and our relationship did not really change. It is always hard to talk with one’s grandparents. Yet, mine seemed to have lived through extraordinary things during a terrifying period. After my film studies, I decided to take a closer look at the subject with the help of my Hi8 video camera. Thanks to this camera, I was able to establish a new relationship with them and, little by little, tongues loosened. Their intense stories about the war and the C ommunist era in Poland opened up my family’s painful history.” (Julia Kowalski)