cinematography
Kuba Dorabialski
editing
Kuba Dorabialski
music
Kuba Dorabialski
sound
Wade Keighran
costumes
Kylie Gonder

cast
Mia Wasikowska (Agata)
Vedrana Božinović (Jasmina)
Selma Alispahić (Ismeta)
Mia Morrissey (Davina)
Admir Glamočak (Vadim)
Zoran Jevtic (Malik)
Hatidža Ćorić (Fatima)
Kuba Dorabialski (Janek)

production
Whitefalk Films
producer
Alex White
with the support of
Screen Australia
Creative Australia
The Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund

Agata travels from Sydney to Sarajevo to write a war novel, but as she gathers material, she is challenged by locals who question her motives. Her creative uncertainty growing, she sees a startling mystery unfold: some provocative and obscene artworks inexplicably vanish. As Agata reads the first chapters of her new novel, it becomes clear that the story is not about the war itself, but about the quiet, very human moments of resilience that persist in its shadow. During her stay in Sarajevo, Agata has developed a deeper understanding of the act of storytelling and the profound responsibilities that come with being a storyteller.

2026 Agata the Writer

“As a filmmaker and video artist, my practice moves between the vocabularies of cinema, literature, and video art, combining them to produce singular, multifaceted works. I think of my films as video art disguised as cinema, and cinema disguised as video art. Agata the Writer engages with and overturns these forms, drawing on narrative film, experimental video, and literature. A central concern of my work is political history and how artists engage with it. Agata the Writer explores the responsibilities of artists who address historical trauma, raising questions of proximity, authorship, and permission. It acknowledges that all art is inherently political, and that this condition carries complex obligations. The film also examines language and the elastic sense of solidarity among Slavic cultures, as well as how this strange phenomenon plays out in the misconceptions of its protagonist, a Polish-Australian writer writing about Bosnia.” (Kuba Dorabialski)

Kuba Dorabialski (Wrocław, Poland) is an artist and filmmaker currently based in Sydney, Australia. Dorabialski’s practice bridges the worlds of gallery-based video installation and cinema, often exploring themes of language, political histories, mysticism and cinematic conventions. As a writer, director, cinematographer, composer and actor, Dorabialski takes on multiple roles in the production of his works. He has exhibited extensively in Australia and internationally and won the celebrated John Fries Award (2017) and the Fisher Ghost Art Prize (2019). In 2021, he had his first major institutional solo exhibition at Carriageworks, a single-channel long-form video work Connection of the Sticks, which premiered on the FLUX: Art + Film program at the Sydney Film Festival in 2023.