Duśka by Polish director Wanda Różycka-Zborowska has won the ‘Best Documentary’ Award at the 1st John Paul II International Film Festival in Miami.

It tells about the life of Wanda Półtawska (popularly known as ‘Duśka), one of the closest friends of Karol Wojtyła, from the early years of his priesthood to the last days of his long pontificate as Pope John Paul II.

During the Second World War she was a prisoner of the Nazi German concentration camp in Ravensbruck, where she was subjected to cruel medical experiments.

After the war, she graduated in medicine and became a noted psychiatrist. She is said to have experienced a medically inexplicable recovery from cancer after Karol Wojtyła, a bishop in Krakow at the time, wrote to ask the prayers of Padre Pio, a stigmatic priest, now a canonized Catholic saint.

She’s the mother of four daughters. Despite her advanced age, now 88, she continues to travel around Poland giving lectures on John Paul II’s teaching on the family.  Last year she published a book containing her personal notes and reflections about her conversations with Karol Wojtyła and a selection of the letters to and from the Polish Pope.

Actress and producer Laura Alvarado, one of the founders of The John Paul II Film Festival said: ‘The spirit of John Paul is very strong. His papacy revolved around love, forgiveness and respect, and human dignity.’  

According to its organizers, the festival  is designed not to promote Catholicism but to highlight universal issues. (mk)