22.06.2022, 6.00 pm in  Marek Edelman Dialogue Center, 83. Wojska Polskiego St., Survivors’ Park: „Like Father, Like Son” (Soshite chichi ni naru), directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan 2013 / 116’

What determines a child's future? Nature or nurture? In his family drama LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda tackles this abstract issue in a very concrete and touching fashion. Six years after the fact, two pairs of parents are told by the hospital that their sons had been switched at birth. One grew up an only child, raised very strictly by a wealthy couple, the other boy had siblings, and was brought up in the somewhat chaotic household of an unsuccessful shop keeper. Both pairs of parents face the same question: should they give the child they love away and take over raising their biological offspring instead? Kore-eda proves to be a master of quiet, but powerful drama in the best tradition of his compatriot Yasujiro Ozu, and, as in his earlier films, NOBODY KNOWS and I WISH, as a gentle director of child actors. That earned him the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The film will be shown with Polish and English subtitles.

OPEN CINEMA is part of the OPEN ŁÓDŹ project, organized by the University of Łódź, the Municipal Police Headquarters in Łódź, and the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center. One of the aims of the project is to develop common strategies for improving the safety of foreign nationals in Łódź and for their increased integration with the local community. The workshops in intercultural communication for police officers, English language courses, and trainings for foreign nationals devoted to safety issues include screenings of movies from all over the world.

Screenings as part of the OPEN CINEMA series include some of the most prominent pictures released in recent years which depict various cultural and linguistic circles, such as Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows”, Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade”, or Liev Schreiber’s “Everything is Illumination”.

In October 2021, 80 years will have passed since the deportation of Jews from Western Europe to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. In the autumn of 1941, the Germans ordered the transport of 20 thousand Jews from German, Austrian, Czech and Luxembourg cities into the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, where 160 thousand Polish Jews had already been forces to live. They arrived at the Radegast Station for 20 days, from October 17 to November 4, 1941.Among them were many scholars, doctors, writers and artists from Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt etc., including Paul Kornfeld, one of the most promising authors of Europe at the time; in Prague transport Germans brought to Łódź two sisters of Franz Kafka; professor Wilhelm Caspari, a renowned specialist in the field of cancer research, arrived from Frankfurt and world famous pianist - Leopold Birkenfeld, arrived from Vienna. The conditions in which those arriving from Europe, as well as other ghetto inhabitants, were forced to live were indeed gruesome. Many people died in the first weeks of despair, illness and starvation, many committed suicide. In May 1942, more than 10 thousand of people who had been brought to Litzmannstadt were deported by Germans to the extermination camp at Chełmno on the Ner (Kulmhof am Ner) and, in 1944, almost all the others, to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Few of them survived the war.

This year, we would like to commemorate the tragic fare which brought together the Jews of Łódź and their brethren from the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg.

MAIN COMMEMORATIONS

18.10.2021 Monday

11:00 AM Official ceremonies (placing symbolic bouquets in the city hall at the Radegast Station)

Venue: Museum of the Independence Traditions in Łódź – Radegast Station Division | 12 Litzmannstadt Ghetto Victims Memorial Avenue

12:00 PM The Living Witnesses (written and directed by Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron, Luxembourg 2021) – premiere screening for high school students in Łódź and a panel with the creators and the special guests - Do not Be Indifferent

Venue: Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street

7:00 PM Whose longing you are… – a concert dedicated to the memory of those deported to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Performers: Iza Połońska (vocal), Leszek Kołodziejski (accordion), Robert Stefański (clarinet)

Venue: Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street

Registration is required for the concert, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ACCOMPANYING EVENTS

14.10.2021 Thursday

6:00 PM Deportations from the Reich and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. October-November 1941 – lecture by Adam Sitarek and Ewa Wiatr from the Centre for Jewish Research, University of Łódź

Venue: Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street

17.10.2021 Sunday

4:00 PM Kafka’s Sisters – opening of an exhibition by the Frakcja group of Łódź artists and the Endmoräne group of German artists from Brandenburg

Venue: The Coach House at Biedermann Palace | 1/5 Franciszkańska Street

6:00 PM For You to Survive the War – premiere of the play (script, direction, cast: Anna Rakowska and Karolina Zajdel)

Venue Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street

19.10.2021 Tuesday

6:00 PM The Living Witnesses (written and directed by Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron, Luxembourg 2021) – screening and discussion with the director

Venue: Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street

Free admission to all events.