Join us for this year’s August Zaleski Memorial Lecture in Modern Polish History to be delivered by acclaimed filmmaker Agnieszka Holland – one of Europe’s most distinguished directors. A three-time Academy Award nominee, she has long brought historical insight and moral urgency to contemporary questions. Her films — including Europa Europa, In Darkness, and Green Border — have examined totalitarianism, the Holocaust, migration, and the human consequences of authoritarian power. Her newest release, Franz, reflects on the vital role cinema itself can play at a moment when authoritarianism is once again on the rise.
In this lecture, Holland turns her attention to the idea of dystopia — its origins, evolution, and renewed relevance today. Coined in the 1920s as a critique of industrialization and utopian idealism, the term dystopia came to describe societies defined by pervasive control and fears of unchecked progress. After World War II, it became closely linked to anti-totalitarianism, surveillance and state power. Today, dystopian anxieties center on environmental crisis, artificial intelligence, corporate dominance, and resurgent authoritarianism.
Can our societies today be described as dystopian? If so, what forces might prevent that future from fully taking hold — and what responsibility do we bear?
The August Zaleski Memorial Lecture in Modern Polish History is named after August Zaleski, a Polish economist, politician and diplomat who served as President of the Polish Republic in Exile in from 1947 until his death on April 7, 1972. The lecture series was established in 1983 through a generous gift from the estate of Zaleski's widow Countess Evelyn Komorowski with the goal to "organize lectures on modern Polish history from the year 1795 to the present time."
Photo credit: Burcu Beaufort 2026
