World

Poland backs off its support of Polanski

by smkovalinsky | October 27, 2009 at 07:09 am

75 views | 5 Recommendations | 2 comments

When film director Roman Polanski was recently arrested on US statutory rape charges stemming back to 1978, the Polish public and many officials rushed to his defense. Poland is Polanski's homeland.

The Polish were stirred up by Polanski's arrest in Zurich. A joint appeal was set forth by foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, even calling for Hilary Clinton's intervention on Polanski's behalf, and calling him " a great artist, with national merit".

Lech Kaczynski, Poland's conservative and family values president, requested that his attorney investigate the matter.

Some fellow artists were wrathful toward the victim, age 13 when the offense was committed, such as fellow film director of Poland, Zanussi, who called her "an underage prostitute".

Numerous Polish artists, such as the director and Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda and Poland's most famous actor, Daniel Olbrychski, were vocal in their defense of Polanski, and urged authorities to assist the 76 year old director in his plight.

However, in recent days Polish opinion has begun to stiffen against the renowned director, with many newspaper opinion pages calling for him to return to the U.S. to face legal proceedings.
For one thing, the overt support of Polanski did not mesh with parliament's recent decision to approve chemical castration for pedophiles, making Poland the toughest European country on sexual offenders.

Marek Migalski, a European MP for the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party, denounced the artists' intervention in favor of Polanski, writing in his blog: “Would you use the same arguments if your buddy Romek got your 13-year-old daughter drunk and then played around with her?” Jerzy Sawka, a columnist for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, wrote that the affair has made him reconsider the values of actors and directors he had once looked up to: “After the matter of Roman Polanski, nothing will be the same again. I'm listening and looking, and I don't believe the words that are coming from people I once respected.”

As the clamor against Polanski grew, Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, called on his ministers to express “greater restraint” over the director's troubles.

“This is a matter which, obviously involves an outstanding Polish director, and did happen many years ago,” Tusk told reporters. “But this is a matter which involves rape, having sex with a child, and we cannot mix politics into it.”