On Monday 22 February 2021, at 5 p.m., as part of the ‘My Armenia, My Armenians’ series, we invite you to an online meeting with Ms. Jadwiga Nowakowska, journalist and documentary film director. You can participate by following the link:

https://youtu.be/D8yukVw3EGE

Jadwiga Nowakowska is a graduate of the Faculty of History (1981) and Journalism (1984) at the Jagiellonian University. In 1989, she joined Polish Television (TVP1), where she was deputy head of the documentary department from 2006-2009. She has made many, mainly historical, films in this genre, whose themes continue to resonate and which focus on important contemporary social problems. Following her work at Polish television, she spent time abroad with her husband, Jerzy Marek Nowakowski, who served as Polish ambassador first in Latvia and then in Armenia.

Jadwiga Nowakowska made Land of War and Dreams (2018) during her stay in Yerevan. It is a poignant, dramatic and nostalgic story about the people of Artsakh, who for years have been living with a feeling of threat from Azerbaijan and with the trauma of the still-unresolved war over their homeland. Against this backdrop, the film depicts their everyday problems, their strong family ties, their will to persevere and their unquenchable hope for a better future. It also tells of the country’s glorious cultural past, of the fate of Christian temples deliberately destroyed and defiled by Muslims, such as the ancient Dadivank monastery, which was turned into a pigsty. The picturesque frames showing the beauty of Artsakh are a delight. The atmospheric music for the film was composed by Michał Lorenc. The film can be viewed on TVP’s VOD page at: “https://vod.tvp.pl/website/kraj-wojny-i-marzen,44737816.

Jadwiga Nowakowska, Artsakh

Alexander Shamirian of Askeran – grandson of a soldier who died in the War of Artsakh,
frame from the film Land of War and Dreams

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