“Putin's playground” — film screening and discussion at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Warsaw

On 23 October (Friday) at 16:00 in room A3 on the ground floor of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lodz, a public screening of Konrad Szołajski's documentary film “Putin's Playground” (2024) will take place. This is a story about the Russian hybrid war in Central and Eastern Europe — about disinformation, provocations and attempts to shake up democracy in the countries of our region.

After the screening, there will be a discussion in which will take part: — Konrad Szoolajski, director and screenwriter of the film, — Barbara Jundo-Kaliszewska, PhD, political scientist specializing in Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries, — Paulina Sikora-Krizhevska, MSc, Institute of Eastern European Studies of the University of Applied Sciences, — Prof. Jarosław Płuciennik, cultural scientist, Institute of Contemporary Culture of UŁ, — Piotr Sitarski, PhD, professor of UŁ, film expert, Institute of Contemporary Culture UŁ,

The event is held under the patronage of the Dean of the Faculty of Philology at UŁ Prof. Rafał Zarębski.

We invite all interested - researchers and film lovers, media experts and journalists, as well as people dealing with history, politics and geopolitics. Admission is free.

About the film “Putin's Playground”

The film — supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA programme — was realized as an international Polish-Norwegian-Czech-Bulgarian-Latvian-German co-production, intended for cinemas and TV. The production of the Polish version was supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and Polish distribution by PISF (Polish cinema title: PLAC ZABAW PUTINA).

The film had its festival premiere in May 2024 in the Polish competition for the 64th edition of the KFF festival in Krakow. He was also nominated for the Silver Eye Award 2024 — and was presented in Kiev, Sarajevo and Sofia, Ljubljana. It is also presented by Polish Institutes.

TV distribution — ARTE (Germany, France), Czech Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal.

Cinema distribution — Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland (as of October 2026).

The topic is the influence of the Russian services on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the context of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The film is maintained in the convention of the investigative document. It is attended by many experts, politicians and representatives of services. We also use archives and unique photographs taken in places where high-profile sabotages were carried out (Czech Republic, Bulgaria), we get to know Russian agents of influence and arrested Russian spies. Interviews are given to us by former presidents, prime ministers, and defense ministers.

The film was produced by ZK Studio.

About the director:

Konrad Szoolajski — film director and documentary filmmaker, graduate of WritV at the University of Silesia in Katowice, he was also educated at the National Film and Television School in Great Britain. A student of Krzysztof Kieślowski, under whose supervision he realized the study “Journalists '82", documenting the work of television in martial law. Author of feature films and documentaries, often combining satire with a critical view of Polish social and political reality. In 2005 he founded ZK Studio, producing documentaries for European broadcasters. After 2015, he made “Good Change” (“Make Poland Great Again”, 2018), “Polish Women Demand the Right to Abortion” (2020) and “Putin's Playground” (2024). He is also the author of novels, radio plays and journalistic texts. He is currently working on the documentary “Democracy in Polish...” and the script of a feature film about the mission of Józef Retinger from 1944.

Text: event organizerPictures and description of the film are from its producer.