Challenges of making film about WWII massacres
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
11.11.2016 12:00
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Challenges of making film about WWII massacres
It's been a little over a month since director Wojciech Smarzowski’s 'Volhynia' (Wołyń) hit the cinemas in Poland.
Actress Michalina Łabacz, who plays the central character in Smarzowski's film. Image: PISF
Set against the backdrop of WWII massacres in lands that lie in today's western Ukraine, the film charts the fate of a young Polish woman who wants to marry a Ukrainian from the same village.
In the midst of World War II, the pair are caught up in a frenzy of ethnic cleansing.
The region of Volhynia, which had lain within Polish borders prior to World War II, was first occupied by the Soviets in 1939, and then by the Nazi Germans in 1941.
According to historians, up to 100,000 ethnic Poles were slaughtered in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia from 1943 to 1945 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a guerrilla force that sought Ukrainian independence, and by local Ukrainians.
Reprisals by Poles claimed the lives of some 10,000-12,000 Ukrainians, including 3,000-5,000 in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
Smarzowski’s movie is the first feature film to deal with the Volhynia Massacres, a traumatic page in Polish-Ukrainian history.
The director, who is known for tackling challenging themes, has stressed that his film is about “love in inhumane times.”
Danuta Isler spoke to Adrian Zaremba, one of the young actors who appear in it about the challenges of making the film.