A ceremony was held on Tuesday at Poland’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York as President Duda’s final engagement during his U.S. visit.
The Polish President said during the ceremony: "I am happy to see that people from across the world, from beyond the ocean, remember their roots, the fact that their ancestors were born in the Polish Republic, and that they want to maintain close bonds with our country.”
In his remarks, Eisenberg recalled that filming A Real Pain in Poland was a significant moment of revelation for him. He explained that “members of his family, even though they had lived in the territories of the Polish Republic much longer than in America, did not attach any importance to their past once they settled in the U.S.”
"It was only me who decided to rediscover Poland and renew links with the land of my ancestors,” he added.
Eisenberg also expressed appreciation for the National Film School in Łódź, whose graduates worked with him on A Real Pain, as well as for the historians and educators at the former Nazi German concentration camp of Majdanek near Lublin, who "are doing extremely important work in preserving the memory of Holocaust victims, including my family."
"I realized that those Poles are doing much more than I do to honor their plight," Eisenberg said.
The acclaimed actor, who is of Polish-Jewish descent, has often spoken about his deep connection to the land of his forefathers. His great-grandmother was born in the town of Krasnystaw in southeastern Poland, from where she emigrated to the United States before the outbreak of World War II.
Eisenberg first visited Krasnystaw in 2007 and returned two years ago while filming A Real Pain, which follows two cousins traveling through Poland in search of their roots. He directed, wrote, and starred in the film alongside Kieran Culkin. Last year, Krasnystaw awarded Eisenberg honorary citizenship for promoting his ancestral region on the international stage.
Eisenberg’s film credits include David Fincher’s The Social Network and Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love and Café Society. He has been nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
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Source: IAR/PAP/Reuters/X/@Reuters
Click on the player icon for an audio report by Agnieszka Bielawska.