Jan Ledóchowski Chris Ledóchowski Film Photography

Jan Ledóchowski

Jan Ledóchowski pursued a career in finance and economics, working in the City for many years and then helping design the reforms in Poland after the fall of communism. Apart from his business interests, he was Chairman of the Coombe House Estate Residents' Association Ltd until 2017 and is currently voluntary Treasurer of Medical Aid for Poland Fund and the Cruising Association's Mediterranean Section. He likes sailing in the Mediterranean in the spring and autumn.

Jan's Films

In recent years Jan has also been actively pursuing his hobby of making films and videos. His latest film, Uncles & Others, was released in 2014 and acclaimed by the Polish press in London and in Poland. Two earlier films, Inka and a documentary about the Polish school in Putney, were shown in several locations in London and elsewhere in the UK in 2012. The Putney film was such a success it inspired a series of more films about Polish schools in the UK.

"It is true human stories that move me" he says.

Uncles & Others

Uncles poster

In this controversial film, Jan's relatives and friends describe the horrors of the Second World War, and their opposing careers after the Communist régime arrived on the back of Stalin's dreaded security police, the NKVD. The London Polish Daily hailed it as a "unique witness of events...[which] provokes discussion and engraves itself on one’s memory”. Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's widest circulation daily newspaper, declared "This is Poland".

One family saved a Jewish Senator, another was massacred by the SS, and 22-year old Magda was killed at the barricades defending Warsaw. Branded as "traitors and decadent landowners" by the Communist régime after the War, some stayed on. One became editor-in-chief of a leading weekly newspaper, and another became a top politician working closely with General Jaruzelski and supporting Martial Law. Others fought the régime, from Radio Free Europe or inside Poland. Shown occasionally in cinemas, it is now also available as a book and DVD.