Reckoning Themes

Reckoning takes its name from Magda Szubanski’s lifelong effort to come to terms with her father’s complicated past. Peter Szubanski, a former assassin for Poland’s Underground Army during World War II, does not hide that he murdered—albeit in the name of the good—many people, including women and young boys. Uncertain whether Peter’s actions were courageous or depraved, Magda travels to Warsaw to learn more about the evils that Peter both faced and enacted…

The shadow of World War II haunts the history of Magda Szubanski’s family. In Poland, the Szubanskis risked their lives to resist oppression from Germany and Russia, and they went to great lengths to protect persecuted Jews. Despite the family’s good intentions, however, Magda laments her inability to calculate the good that came from her family’s actions; instead, she’s only able to calculate the bad. For example, she can count how many German spies…

As a public figure, Magda Szubanski lives in acute awareness of her appearance. Even before becoming a famous actor, Magda faced social prejudices around her weight. Plus-sized since a young age, Magda’s parents criticize her weight and subject her to weight-loss programs. What is more, her plus-sized status estranges Magda, making her unable to do things—such as tennis—that her peers can. Then, when Magda enters the public eye as a comic actor, her weight is…

Much of Reckoning deals with the uncovering of brutal history and tales of suffering. Both the Holocaust and Ireland’s history of war and poverty are inextricable from Magda’s family history. Whether she is hearing the story of a murdered Jewish child, learning that 10 of her Irish great-grandmother’s children died from poverty and disease, or touring the ruins of extermination camps in Poland, Magda encounters truths the horrors that push her beyond the…