Dalai Lama and Obama in outstanding Poles documentary

Dalai Lama. Photo: wikipedia/Luca Galuzzi

Hanna Ceglinska-Lesnodorska's film People Changing our World – Poles, draws together a diverse of group of international luminaries.

An interview with the Dalai Lama sees the Tibetan leader hold forth on Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa. The director spoke with the exiled leader in 2013, when he attended a summit of Nobel Prize-winners in Warsaw.

Curiously enough, the Dalai Lama had a Polish mentor in the early years of his exile in Dharamsala, India.

A Polish lady named Wanda Dynowska who settled in Dharamsala in 1960 was active in helping Tibetan refugees. The Dalai Lama described her recently as “like a second mother”, noting that it was “thanks to her” that he became a vegetarian.

Other luminaries interviewed for the documentary include Steven Spielberg, who speaks about his long-running cooperation with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, War Horse and Lincoln, among others).

President Barack Obama's appearance includes excerpts from his tribute to Jan Karski, during a medal ceremony for the late WWII courier who tried to inform the West about the Holocaust. As it was, Obama's speech sparked an outcry in Poland when he accidentally used the term 'Polish death camps' instead of 'Nazi German death camp.'

Outstanding Poles featured in the documentary also include composers Fryderyk Chopin and Krzysztof Penderecki.

People Changing our World – Poles is due to go on release in Polish cinemas this November. (nh)

Source: PAP