Just over a century after his death, Joseph Conrad’s stories of courage, conflict and moral choice still speak powerfully from the cinema and TV screens as well as book pages. Between the 1-11 November 2025, the Polish Cultural Institute in London, in partnership with the British Library and Ciné Lumière, will host a series of events celebrating his legacy. A curated selection of film adaptations bring Conrad’s complex tales to life. On the 7 November, the British Library hosts a film screening of African Apocalypse by award-winning director Robert Lemkin, followed by a panel discussion – Heart of Conrad: Joseph Conrad in Contemporary Culture, exploring Conrad’s wide-ranging legacy with an expert panel of experts drawn from the fields of academia, literature and film in an evening led by BBC journalist Kasia Madera.
Joseph Conrad and Cinema – Ciné Lumière 1-11 November
Sabotage – 1 November, 14:00 | 3 November, 18:00 (+ intro by Prof. Emeritus Robert Hampson, Royal Holloway, London, on 1 Nov) – Screened in 35mm, Tickets £5-14
Sabotage updates Joseph Conrad’s classic novel The Secret Agent for the shadowy political intrigues of 1930s London. One of the last and finest films Hitchcock made before he left Britain for Hollywood, Sabotage is a classic from the master of suspense.
“One of the most playful of Hitchcock’s British thrillers”, Time Out London
Book: Sabotage at Ciné Lumière – Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
Gabrielle – 2 November, 12:00 | 5 November, 18:00 – Screened in 35 mm, Tickets £5-14
Adapting Joseph Conrad’s short story, The Return, director Patrice Chéreau weaves the intense tale of a wealthy couple whose marriage is turned upside down by an episode of infidelity. Chéreau brings out Conrad’s painful exploration of suppressed feelings and self-deception, anchored by a typically shattering performance from Isabelle Huppert.
“A careful and cinematic adaptation that rings with painful truth”, Time Out London
Book: Gabrielle at Ciné Lumière – Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut – 8 November, 15:30 (+ intro by Prof. Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech, University of Silesia, Poland), Tickets £5-14
Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary film used Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness as the basis for an epic, hallucinatory fantasia on the Vietnam War. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is tasked with journeying upriver to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reportedly gone mad. The Final Cut is Coppola’s definitive version of Apocalypse Now, restoring scenes featuring Christian Marquand and Aurore Clément.
“Coppola’s epic ‘definitive’ cut of his brilliant 1979 war film is triumphant in restating the inhumanity of empire”, 5* Review in The Guardian
Book: Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut at Ciné Lumière – Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
Almayer’s Folly – 9 November, 14:00 | 11 November, 18:00 (+ intro by Prof. Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech on 9 Nov), Tickets £5-14Chantal Akerman turned to Joseph Conrad’s lesser-known first novel for her last fiction film, a searing tale of a fortune seeker stranded in Malaysia, who struggles for possession of his half-Malay daughter. Akerman transplants the tale to the dying days of European imperialism, examining the corrosive effects of greed and jealousy against the hypnotic backdrop of the jungle.
“A tropical study in helpless intransigence, adapted from Conrad’s often-overlooked debut novel”, The New York Times
Book: Almayer’s Folly at Ciné Lumière – Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
Full Programme: Joseph Conrad and Cinema – Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
Screening of African Apocalypse and Conrad in Contemporary Culture Panel Discussion, British Library, 7 November
African Apocalypse 7 November, 17:00
Lemkin’s Award-winning African Apocalypse (2020) is a non-fiction retelling of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness focuses on colonial conquest of Niger. It follows the trail of a 19th-century French colonial military commander Paul Voulet, who burned his way across Africa at the very moment Conrad wrote his book.
“A startling journey into Niger’s heart of darkness”, 5* Review in The Guardian
Screening of African Apocalypse | British Library
Heart of Conrad: Conrad in Contemporary Culture, 7 November 19:00-20:30
An evening exploring Conrad’s wide-ranging legacy, bringing together an expert panel of academics, writers and a film maker.
The discussion is introduced by Robert Hampson of the Joseph Conrad Society, and the panel draws together the international expertise of Professor Agnieszka Adamowicz-Pośpiech; Professor Kaoru Yamamoto, film maker Robert Lemkin and science fiction superstar Jacek Dukaj in conversation with the BBC’s Kasia Madera.
Heart of Conrad | British Library
