Stills from the Film Lalka (The Doll)

Stills from the new film of Lalka (The Doll), Poland’s great 19th-century Warsaw novel, hung in the Łazienki Open-Air Gallery on Aleje Ujazdowskie, a month either side of the cinema release on 30 September 2026. Admission was free, and the show ran from 1 September to 31 October 2026.

The Royal Łazienki Museum on the exhibition:

We invite you to an open-air exhibition of stills from the latest screen adaptation of Bolesław Prus’s “Lalka”, directed by Maciej Kawalski. The film premieres on 30 September 2026.

The exhibition, on view in the Open-Air Gallery on Aleje Ujazdowskie, presents selected photographs taken during the filming of one of the most important novels in Polish literature. It is a chance to look at the film’s interpretation of Bolesław Prus’s work through striking frames.

The photographs show the characters, scenes and spaces connected with the production, as well as elements of the set design and costumes. The exhibition invites you into the film world of “Lalka” through photographs documenting the work of the filmmakers and actors, and the places that became the settings of the production.

Most of the filming of “Lalka” took place in authentic historic buildings and outdoor locations. One of the film sets in Warsaw was the Royal Łazienki. In August and September 2025 the crew worked in the historic gardens, including the Royal Garden, and in October and November in the historic interiors: the White House, the Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery and the Palace on the Isle. The last filming location in the Royal Łazienki was the Myślewicki Palace, where further shots were taken in mid-December 2025.

Bolesław Prus’s “Lalka” has long held a special place in Polish culture. Its characters, social relations and themes continue to interest successive generations of artists. The new adaptation by director Maciej Kawalski enters into a dialogue with this heritage, offering its own take on the literary work.

Translated from the museum’s Polish text; the museum has not published an English version of this page.

What to expect

This was not an indoor show. The museum gave the venue as its Open-Air Gallery on Aleje Ujazdowskie; according to the free-entry guide wstepwolny.org, that is a display on the Łazienki park railings, so the stills were seen from the pavement, with no ticket and without entering the gardens. The museum described the selection as production photographs: characters, scenes, set design, costumes and filming locations. It did not say how many images were on show.

The best part was that the film was shot right behind that railing. The crew worked in Łazienki from August to mid-December 2025: in the Royal Garden, the White House, the Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery, the Palace on the Isle and the Myślewicki Palace. After the stills, visitors could walk into the park and find the real locations. The film’s cinematographer is Piotr Sobociński Jr.

Context

Bolesław Prus’s Lalka (The Doll) was serialised in the Warsaw daily Kurier Codzienny in 1887-1889 and came out as a book in 1890. It follows Stanisław Wokulski, a self-made merchant who falls for the aristocrat Izabela Łęcka, and it paints a wide picture of Warsaw society in the late 19th century. Łazienki matters in the plot: Wokulski comes to the park hoping to run into Izabela.

The novel was filmed before by Wojciech Jerzy Has (1968) and made into a TV series by Ryszard Ber (1977). The new version is directed by Maciej Kawalski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Łukasz Światowiec. Marcin Dorociński plays Wokulski, Kamila Urzędowska plays Izabela and Marek Kondrat plays the shop clerk Ignacy Rzecki.

Tickets and time

• Free. As stated on the museum’s exhibition page.
• Dates: 1 September to 31 October 2026.
• Where: the Open-Air Gallery on Aleje Ujazdowskie, the avenue running along the western edge of Łazienki Park in central Warsaw.
• English on site: the museum had no English page for this show and did not say whether the captions were in English.

Events

The museum announced no events for the stills show itself. A few days before the film’s release, it held a public event around the novel in the park:

• 27.09.2026, 14:00-16:00 - “Reading Lalka Together in Łazienki”, a literary happening (in Polish) by the Lower South Pond near the Palace on the Isle, free of charge: details

The museum published its description of the exhibition on the event page (in Polish).

Updates

• 2 November 2026: the exhibition closed on 31 October 2026; the museum announced no extension.

After the show

On now at the Royal Łazienki Museum:

• Chic and Conventions. Costumes from the Film “The Doll” - 32 costumes from the same film, split between the Palace on the Isle, the Myślewicki Palace and the Old Orangery, buildings where the film was shot; until 13 December 2026.
• Heliograms in the Solomon Room. In Search of Light - Nicolas Grospierre’s heliograms in the empty frames left by Marcello Bacciarelli’s paintings, burnt by the Germans in 1944, in the Palace on the Isle, one of the interiors where Lalka was filmed; until 31 January 2027.
• The Nabis. Prophets of a New Art - over 90 works by the artistic group active in France between 1888 and 1899, the years when Lalka was serialised and first published as a book; in the Officer Cadets School building until 15 November 2026.

Related exhibitions on now elsewhere in Warsaw:

• Next Door to Pola Gojawiczyńska - at the Museum of Literature until 31 December 2026; a show on the writer’s life in interwar Warsaw that, like the Łazienki stills, uses stills from the film of a Warsaw novel: the 1937 “Dziewczęta z Nowolipek” (Girls of Nowolipki), used to show the city of that time and its poor districts in particular.

Museum profile: Royal Łazienki Museum.