Iowa City Book Festival celebrates the 75th anniversary of Finnegans Wake publication

The Iowa City Book Festival celebrates the 75th anniversary of the publication of Finnegans Wake – James Joyce’s last novel. Tomorrow, at the festival organized by Iowa City – one of the seven UNESCO Cities of Literature – a series of short films based on excerpts from the Irish writer’s novels will be screened. They include the Krakow episode, which premiered in Dublin on 14th May. After the showing, a meeting devoted to the adaptation of Joyce’s prose for the stage will be held.

The author of the concept and the film director is Michał Buszewicz, one of the most talented drama writers of the young generation. Together with Magda Szpecht, Kuba Laskowski and Ludwik Kamiński, whom Buszewicz had invited to cooperate, they filmed an excerpt from the novel. Among others, Lesław and Wacław Janicki twin brothers, once famous actors of Tadeusz Kantor’s theatre (now running a jeweler’s workshop in Krakow), along with Jaśmina Polak, known from the film Hardkor Disco, appeared on screen. The filming took place at Wawel Cathedral, the unfinished tower block in Krakow known as Szkieletor, and at the Janicki brothers’ workshop. The excerpt from the novel which was adapted for the screen in Krakow refers to the famous legend about the 16th-century pirate queen, Grace O’Malley, whom Lord Howth refused entry to the castle at dinner.