UNSW Art & Design is celebrating a major milestone for lecturer Kuba Dorabialski, whose debut feature film, Agata the Writer, will have its world premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival in September.
Read: UNSW Sydney Retains Title as Australia’s Most Employable University
Dorabialski is an artist, writer, and educator originally from Wrocław, Poland, who works primarily in video installation. He is also a PhD candidate at UNSW Art & Design, where his research explores the intersections of mysticism and radical politics in Eastern European moving-image practice.
The UNSW Art & Design, which has a campus in Paddington, hosts galleries, public, and student-initiated performances, screening and lecture programs alongside its teaching and research activities.
The Venice selection brings Dorabialski’s feature filmmaking to an international festival audience, alongside his existing work in visual art and research. Agata the Writer has been selected for Giornate degli Autori, the independent section of the Venice Film Festival, where it is one of 10 films in the 2026 competition.
‘Agata The Writer’ Brings Sydney Story To Sarajevo
The film stars Mia Wasikowska as Agata, a Polish-Australian novelist who travels from Sydney to Sarajevo intending to write a novel about war. Her project becomes increasingly complicated when locals question her motives and the reasons behind her decision to write about historical trauma. The story then takes an unexpected turn as a number of provocative and obscene artworks inexplicably disappear.
As the mystery unfolds, Agata’s creative uncertainty grows, prompting her to reconsider what it means to tell stories about the past. As the story develops, the novel she is writing becomes less about the war itself and more about the quiet human experiences and resilience that continue in its aftermath.
Dorabialski has taken on multiple creative roles for the film. He is credited as writer, director and director of photography, as well as editor and composer. The project reflects his broader interest in cinema, language and geography, as well as his practice as a visual artist. His work and research explore the relationship between mysticism, radical leftist politics and the personal poetic.
Dorabialski has described the Venice premiere as a dream come true and said he hopes the film encourages audiences to consider the ethical and political dimensions of storytelling, including who gets to tell particular stories, under what circumstances and for what purpose.
Read: Air Quality Study Places Inner Sydney High School Under the Microscope
Those questions are central to the film’s exploration of storytelling and the responsibilities of the storyteller. Agata the Writer brings together a Polish-Australian protagonist, her journey from Sydney to Sarajevo and questions about the responsibilities involved in telling stories about historical trauma.
Published 8-August-2026
