In this session, we are pleased to host Aliona van der Horst, Dore van Duivenbode, and Otto Boele, who will discuss documentaries that cover historical and recent developments in Poland and the Russian Federation. Aliona van der Horst is a renowned documentary film director acclaimed for her distinctive style of poetic filmmaking. She tends to explore politically-charged collective tragedies that continue to haunt Russian society. Van der Horst’s impressive portfolio includes five films that delve into Russia's tumultuous history, with her most recent work being "Turn Your Body to the Sun" (2021) about a Tatar Soviet soldier captured by the Nazis during WWI. She will be joined by Dore van Duivenbode, who is a writer, journalist, and TV presenter. Being of Polish-Dutch descent, she is committed to raising awareness about the current challenges to press freedom in Poland. Van Duivenbode spent eight months behind the scenes of Gazeta Wyborcza, one of the last remaining independent Polish newspapers, and documented her journey in the four-part series Gazeta, de Poolse krant onder vuur (‘Gazeta, the Polish Newspaper Under Fire’). The discussion will be moderated by Otto Boele, Senior Lecturer at Leiden University, who has extensive expertise on Contemporary Russian Literature and Russian Cinema.
