09/10/2025
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His book, “Electronic Bandit. The Video Market in Transformation Poland” (published by słowo/obraz terytoria), is a coarse dissection of the times when movie theaters were turned into carpet stores and the VCR was a godsend. It's a story about the golden era of VHS, when a rental shop sprouted up on every corner, and clever guys in leather jackets flooded the market with hundreds of films featuring Rambo, Chuck Norris and other idols from the „rotten West.”.
Fortune without anesthesia describes this wild market - an accelerated course of capitalism, in which business was more often than not gangster-like, and business was done in suitcases. If you thought running a film festival was crazy, read what it was like to build a video market from scratch in a country that was just learning what it was all about.
In short: it's a story about how videotapes shaped the taste of an entire generation. That is, including ours. And, by extension, probably yours as well.
The book is already in good bookstores and online. Look for it, buy it, read it. Then you can come to Octopus and pretend you know your stuff.
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