Robert Zieliński – MagicLine Group
From QR code to martial law — in two and a half minutes
The film tells the story of a young boy named Oliwier, who, thanks to a magic QR code, travels back in time and finds himself in the middle of Wrocław’s post-war history. In 150 seconds, the viewer traverses eight decades of the city’s history — from displacements and pioneering post-war years, through the school realities of the Polish People’s Republic and the streets of the sixties, to empty shelves in meat shops during the Gierek era, prisons for oppositionists during martial law, and finally to the birth of freedom after 1989. The creators paid attention to the smallest historical details — from props and costumes to typography on signs — creating a production that could just as well be a miniature feature film.
The director and screenwriter is Michał Zieliński from the Wrocław creative studio Grupa MagicLine — the same studio that a year earlier won the title of Best City Promotion Film in the World for the production “Wrocław City of Adventure,” awarded eight times at festivals worldwide. The film was commissioned by the Zajezdnia History Centre — a museum located in a former bus depot on Grabiszyńska Street in Wrocław, run by the “Memory and Future” Centre. The permanent exhibition “Wrocław 1945–2016,” which the spot promotes, has been attracting visitors for almost a decade.
Japan: two trophies among 1334 films from around the world
The latest awards for “You Must See It” were won at the eighth edition of the Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival (JWTFF), which took place from March 18–20, 2026, in Koka, Shiga Prefecture. The festival received 1334 submissions from around the world — it is one of the largest tourism film competitions globally, part of the prestigious CIFFT (Comité International des Festivals du Film Touristique) circuit. Zieliński’s film was honored in two categories: it won silver for the best film promoting tourism services and a special festival director’s award from Tsuyoshi Kikawa for the director.
Jury chairman Kyung Wook Seo praised the production for the way it combined historical narrative with emotional message — emphasizing that the film surprisingly presents the museum’s content, combining technical perfection with a moving story. Michał Zieliński personally accepted the award in Japan.
Four countries, five awards, half a year
Japan is already the fourth country where “You Must See It” has won the recognition of jurors. The award journey began in September 2025 at the Terres Film Festival in Tortosa, Spain, where the film competed with 150 productions from a dozen countries and won an award in the tourism services category. A month later, at the Zagreb TourFilm Festival in Croatia, it received an honorable mention in the same category. The culmination was December 2025 — during the World Tourism Film Awards in Guimarães, Portugal, organized under the patronage of UN Tourism, the film ranked fifth in the global CIFFT ranking in the Tourism Services category, earning it the title of one of the Best Tourism Films in the World 2025. In the entire CIFFT circuit, it competed with over four thousand productions from more than fifty countries.
As Zieliński said after the ceremony in Portugal: he is glad that he can tell the world about Polish culture, tradition, and history — and that after successes in Europe and the United States, the film has also been appreciated in Asia. The director of the Zajezdnia History Centre, Dr. Andrzej Jerie, emphasized in turn that the success confirms the value of seeking new ways to tell the fascinating history of Wrocław.
Why this is important for the Polish diaspora
For eight and a half million Americans of Polish descent, the film “You Must See It” has significance far beyond festival competition. The Zajezdnia History Centre tells a story that is directly the story of Polish families in America — a story of displacement, rebuilding, life under the communist system, and finally freedom. Many Wrocław residents of the 1940s and 1950s are the ancestors of today’s Polish diaspora: people who came to Lower Silesia from Lviv, from the Vilnius region, from the Kresy, and then — or their children — moved on to Chicago, New York, New Jersey. Zieliński’s film in condensed form shows a world that Polish-American families have been talking about at the Christmas Eve table for generations.
The success of “You Must See It” on four continents also proves something broader — that Polish cultural institutions are increasingly better at telling their story in a language understandable to an international audience. When a jury in Japan, Spain, or Croatia awards prizes to a film about post-war Wrocław, it is not a gesture of courtesy — it is recognition that Polish history is a universal story of resilience, memory, and identity.
The film “You Must See It” is available on YouTube: youtube.com/Centrum Historii Zajezdnia
Zajezdnia History Centre, ul. Grabiszyńska 184, Wrocław. The permanent exhibition “Wrocław 1945–2016” is open from Tuesday to Sunday. More information: zajezdnia.org
Editorial Team, Voice of Polonia in the USA
