INTIMACY by Yael Vishnizki-Levi – film screening, as part of the 75. Anniversary of the Bialystok Ghetto Uprising

Intimacy, 2017 (30 min, Polish) depicts a meeting of two inmates in a prison cell in prewar Poland. Using the method of a shadow theatre, the director narrates the story of her own grandfather, a Polish-Jewish communist activist and his time spent in prison together with Władysław Gomułka, who became after WWII, the first secretary of the Polish Communist Party.
 
The film deals with different historical and personal events that followed this meeting and involved both figures from different sides of the barricade; including the struggle for equality that failed, the ideology that transformed into an oppressive regime, the nationalist propaganda and the solidarity that was only temporary and did not manage to reach real partnership and consolidation.
 
The film is based on Władysław Gomułka’s public speeches and fragments from his biography and memoire. Through the character of Gomułka, the director explores the character of her own grandfather. His story is the story of a young ideological and enthusiastic communist, who fled his country during the war, wished to be part of a socialist society but was not welcomed in any place. This story was very common among his generation who immigrated to Israel from Eastern Europe after WWII and were not given equal opportunities or a right to choose their future.

is an artist, curator and filmmaker. She holds a BFA (cum laude) from Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, Israel. She also studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and at the Tel-Aviv University. Yael exhibits her work internationally including at the Wrocław Contemporary Museum and Arad Contemporary Art Center. She participated in many residency programs including at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, the Wschodnia Gallery in Łódz, the Nida Art Colony in Nida, Lithuania and the Arad Art&Architecture in Arad, Israel. As a curator, she has collaborated with institutions including the Center of Culture in Lublin and Binyamin Gallery in Tel-Aviv. Since 2015 she is based in Warsaw, Poland. She is the founder of Artours Warsaw, a platform that provides contemporary art tours in Warsaw in English.