Led by: Monika Ochędowska

In his second novel, Mateusz Pakuła again reaches out to his family’s story. It is the early 1950s, the middle of Stalinism when the author’s grandfather is imprisoned in a torture chamber in Kielce for a teenage prank. The one who will save him will shed light not only on the dark past of the town, which has a connection to the war, the Kielce Pogrom, and the Holocaust. Also, on the future of the new generation. How do we wear these leather jackets from our grandfathers, which are torn just like our memories? Is the history we remember the version that we want to remember? Can it become our identity founding myth?

Mateusz Pakuła is a writer and theater director. Author of several dozen theater plays. He received the Gdynia Dramaturgy Prize in 2014 and was a four-time nominee. He received the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize in 2022 and the Olśnienia Onetu Prize in 2024. He also received nominations for the Gdynia Literary Prize (2022) and Paszporty Polityki (2023).

In Polish. Free admission.

This event is part of the project “20 for 20. A Series of Meetings with 20 Authors for the Galicia Jewish Museum 20th Anniversary”. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Fund for Promoting Culture.