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Overcoming the crisis of hope

An interview with Agnieszka Holland, a Polish film director. Interviewer: Joanna Mosiej, editor in chief of the Sestry magazine

JOANNA MOSIEJ: You once said that your biggest dream is for the world to wake up and for us to have a future. Are we now living in a reality that resembles the Weimar Republic in its final days? Meaning, there is no hope and no return? That history needs to repeat itself?

AGNIESZKA HOLLAND: I am worried that it will be difficult to reverse from this path, unless there is a true will to do so. Of course we know that hope is what dies last, but this hope needs to be a collective, and not individual, experience. At this moment, when I am observing those who decide on our fate, I see that they neither have any ideas, nor will. And there is no courage.

May 5, 2025 - Agnieszka Holland Joanna Mosiej - Hot TopicsIssue 3 2025Magazine

Photo: Martin Kraft (CC) commons.wikimedia.org

At the moment all governments that are either liberal or centre right are heading towards a direction of reactivity towards something which in their view seems inevitable, that is a wave of brown-shirt populism. When this wave is not counterbalanced with anything but more populism, then we cannot win in the game of deciding the world’s fate. At least we won’t be able to win in the next decade. At the same time, I do not see the hard work, the determination, nor the charisma that would make people believe that it is worth fighting for some values. And that means fighting in every aspect of the word: like the Ukrainians are fighting now, but also by giving up a certain level of comfort in order to ensure a better future and expand the rights of others.

Instead, we can see that many people who until now were engaged have become tired, disappointed and lost hope. As a result, they opt for what we call “internal migration”.

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