Nowi Londyńczycy. Polscy emigranci na dużym (i małym) ekranie

• Authors: Heuckelom, Van Kris

Title variants

EN

New Londoners. Polish Immigrants on the Silver (and TV) Screen

Abstracts

EN

The article focuses on growing presence of Polish labour immigrants in contemporary European cinema and TV fiction. Striking differences are observed between pre¬ 1989 and post¬ 1989 productions on the subject of labour migration. Whereas older films tend to depict Polish job¬ seekers as unfortunate troublemakers, films set in the post¬ communist period seem to convey increased social interaction between newcomers and local people which need not be hostile. This is usually represented by a motif of an interethnic love story. As such, recent European productions depart from the traditional portrayal of immi-grants in post¬ war Polish film “as an anomaly from the norm and a problem for which somebody is to blame,” as Ewa Mazierska puts it (2009; 123). Similarly, post¬ 1989 represen-tations of Polish labour migrants in European cinema differ significantly from the image created in recent Polish drama series Londyńczycy (Londoners, 2008–2009) where stress is laid on the strong cohesive spirit within the Polish migrant community rather than the motif of a (happy) interethnic romance.

Keywords

EN

Polish labour immigrants; post-communist; Londyńczycy

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
• Journal: Postscriptum Polonistyczne
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 1(5)
• Pages: 165-176

Contributors

author

Heuckelom, Van Kris

• Instytut Slawistyki, Uniwersytet Katolicki w Leuven, Belgia

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