Chapter 25: Voices and Faces from the Third World

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 25, written by Olivier Hadouchi, examines the sixty-three students from the Global South who studied at the Łódź Film School during the Cold War. These individuals came from African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries, many of which were undergoing decolonization. The chapter highlights how the school served as a model and point of reference for emerging film industries in the Third World. Student works such as Rupen Vosgimorukian’s Report: September 1969 documented Palestinian refugee suffering, while others like José Luis di Zeo’s Guerrilla depicted armed resistance. The chapter connects these films to the broader context of Third Cinema manifestos by Solanas and Getino, and to global youth protest movements of 1968. It argues that these student filmmakers used cinema to assert national identity, challenge neocolonialism, and express revolutionary ideals, creating works that remain politically and aesthetically audacious.

Key Events

The Łódź Film School enrolled sixty-three students from the Global South over several Cold War decades, including individuals from Algeria, Morocco, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Lebanon.
Polish cinema gained international prestige through directors like Wajda and Skolimowski, making the school an attractive destination for international students.
Decolonization movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America intensified during the 1960s, with the Tricontinental Conference in Havana (1966) advocating armed struggle.
Student films such as Vosgimorukian’s Report: September 1969 documented Palestinian refugees; di Zeo’s Guerrilla (1966) and Wake (1965) depicted guerrilla warfare and revolutionary martyrdom.
The chapter discusses how learning Polish and studying Polish culture, as seen in Drissi’s Lesson 41 (1966), forced a dialectic between the particular and universal.
Films from the school engaged with Third Cinema theory, with Idriss Karim writing to the journal Souffles referencing Solanas and Getino’s manifesto.
Global youth culture of 1968 appears in films like Lagtaa’s Shadow among Others and Zermeño’s Without Requiem, linking Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and Mehdi Ben Barka.
The chapter contrasts the risky political engagement of students—some facing arrest, torture, or murder—with the countercultural atmosphere in Polish student films by Mostafa Derkaoui.

Character Development

Rupen Vosgimorukian emerges as a filmmaker bearing witness: his Report: September 1969 captures Palestinian suffering with unflinching imagery, positioning him as a chronicler of historical trauma. José Luis di Zeo develops a visual language of resistance, placing women at the center of revolutionary action in Guerrilla and Wake, where a woman washes her husband’s corpse in a pietà tableau reminiscent of Che Guevara. Abdellah Drissi’s Lesson 41 shows foreign students mastering Polish through recitation of Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, reflecting their dual identity as learners and agents of decolonization. Mostafa Derkaoui transposes the jazz-and-existentialist Parisian counterculture to Polish settings. These filmmakers collectively evolve from learners into politically engaged artists, using their craft to assert visibility for their communities.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Decolonization and National Rebirth: The “rebirth of a nation” motif, applied to both Poland and new postcolonial states, frames film as a tool for cultural assertion after the “colonial night.”
Third Cinema Theory: The chapter explicitly engages with Solanas and Getino’s manifesto “Toward a Third Cinema,” advocating for a cinema of combat that rejects Hollywood (First Cinema) and even auteurism (Second Cinema).
Hunger as Political Aesthetic: Sánchez Ariza’s The Cat Died of Hunger dialogues with Glauber Rocha’s “Aesthetics of Hunger,” using poverty as both ethical dilemma and formal provocation.
Internationalism and Solidarity: Posters and references to Che, Ho Chi Minh, and Ben Barka in student films symbolize a transnational, tricontinental solidarity against imperialism.
Visibility and Voice: Repetition of shots and slogans in films like Shadow among Others functions pedagogically, insisting on the recognition of Third World struggles.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter radically reframes the history of the Łódź Film School, moving beyond its contribution to Polish national cinema to reveal its global significance. By documenting the student filmmakers from the Global South, the chapter shows that the school was a nexus for anti-colonial and anti-imperialist ideas during the Cold War. It challenges the notion that Eastern Bloc film education was purely propagandistic; instead, these students produced formally audacious, politically subversive works that engaged with Third Cinema and global youth revolts. The chapter also provides concrete evidence of how cinema served as a weapon of liberation and a means of making the “Third World” visible on its own terms.

Study Questions and Answers

How did the Łódź Film School facilitate the decolonization process for its international students?
The school provided professional training in filmmaking—a medium Lenin considered “the most important of all the arts” for mass mobilization. Students from former colonies used the skills they acquired to return home and create films that documented struggles, asserted national identity, and challenged neocolonial power structures. For instance, Ahmed Lallem’s short Elles gave voice to Algerian high school girls, directly engaging with social issues.
What distinguishes Third Cinema from First and Second Cinema according to Solanas and Getino?
First Cinema (Hollywood blockbusters and large Soviet productions) is seen as alienating and serving imperialism. Second Cinema (European auteur cinema) offers no real break with the world system and can be merely insubordinate. Third Cinema is resolutely combative, seeking cultural decolonization through collective production, alternative distribution, and a revolutionary aesthetic—using the camera as a weapon.
How do the student films discussed reflect the global youth protest culture of 1968?
Films like Lagtaa’s Shadow among Others include horizontal panoramas linking Mehdi Ben Barka with Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh, while Zermeño’s Without Requiem ends with the protest song “We Shall Overcome.” These works depict student dormitories, political arguments, and repression, directly echoing the atmosphere of protests in Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, and other cities. The films also reference the Partisans magazine slogan “Students, Workers, One Fight!” tying local Polish/student struggles to worldwide anti-imperialist movements.