Event

VOLHYNIA - WOLYN

100 YEARS OF POLAND'S REGAINED INDEPENDENCE

FREE SCREENING!

2016, 149 min, Poland
Polish with English subtitles
dir. WOJCIECH SMARZOWSKI

Cast/Obsada
Michalina Labacz (Zosia Glowacka), Arkadiusz Jakubik (Maciej Skiba), Wasyl Wasylik (Petro), Adrian Zaremba (Antek Wilk), Lech Dyblik (Hawryluk), Jacek Braciak (Glowacki), Izabela Kuna (Glowacka)

This epic historical drama is set in a small village inhabited by Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews, located in the southwestern part of Volhynia, a region that straddles Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. Told through the eyes of our heroine, Zosia Gowacka, the story takes place from the spring of 1939 to the summer of 1945, from the outbreak of World War II to the end of the war. At the beginning of the story, Zosia is in love with a Ukrainian boy, but her father has promised her to a rich landowner, a widower, who is much older and has two children. Soviet occupation changes village life, and then the Germans invade. During the year that follows, the Jewish population is brutally hunted down and murdered. Ukrainian aspirations to independence grow even without German support, and conflict increases between the Polish and Ukrainian communities. People start to disappear, and in the summer of 1943 an orgy of murder and cruelty explodes. Ukrainian partisans brutally attack Polish settlements; Polish partisans retaliate with equal ferocity. In this world of hate, Zosia tries to save her children.