“Leçons d’une université volante is a quintet of short interviews with Belgian immigrants from communist Poland. The Dardennes have said one of the reasons they made documentaries was to gather people together and build communities of workers, immigrants, and activists. This series, which begins with the same historical summary of Soviet expansion into Budapest, Prague, Kabul, and Warsaw, is named after the ‘flying universities’ of Poland (late-19th century underground education networks) resumed in the late-’70s just prior to the Solidarity movement. Immigrants reveal their names, point to a map showing where they lived in Poland, describe their trade, and trace the routes they took to Belgium. The Dardennes highlight the work of farmer and peasant unions, teachers, and families in a straightforward, unembellished manner: one whole segment features a family’s spontaneous critiques of a Warsaw propaganda broadcast emanating from a radio on their kitchen table.”
Argos Centre for Art and Media
« Après le coup d’État de 1981, en Pologne, on s’est dit : il faut faire quelque chose. Pas un truc qui reste confidentiel, mais quelque chose qu’on montre aux gens. On a pris contact avec la télévision belge, le Centre de Liège a donné son accord pour acheter la diffusion de cinq courts métrages de dix minutes qui devaient passer juste après le journal. Notre idée était de montrer que ce pays ultranationaliste avait été un pays, non pas terre d’asile mais terre d’exil, depuis le premier exil dans les années trente jusqu’à aujourd’hui. »
Luc Dardenne