Poklosie

From the beginning one knows this is not going to be a walk in the park. The movie exudes heaviness wrapped in the antisemitism of the time, the country and the characters.

Layered with numerous subplots about brother-brother relationship, the role of the church, the morals of the people, the dreariness of rural living in Poland-the main peeling of the onion unfolds in the last few minutes and the results are spellbinding.

The twists and turns kept me engrossed and I found the acting so good that I had to remind myself that this was not a documentary. Having said that we were reminded by a poster that this is based on actual events, indeed that made it even more provocative and upsetting.

It's the kind of movie that will have you thinking about it for along time.

This is a very good movie. Deeply tragic, terribly honest, unbearably truthful, impossibly merciless. he very topic of Holocaust has been closely watched, studied and discussed, but here we do not have the scale of Spielberg's Schindler's List, or bare wound of Polanski's Pianist. Here we see a minor case, nevertheless, not a bit less painful or decent. The story of two Kalina brothers in a small Polish village (which is shown so vividly and so exact) seems to be a bit slow at first, but then the tempo of the film gets faster, the events get more and more tragic, and people become more and more horrible. This is a fictitious village, but the story itself is of Jedwabne origin, with local population taking part in killing all local Jews just to be commended by Nazis. The very fact that the movie was prohibited in some Polish Gminy (regions), and harshly attacked by nationalists shows how very true it is and how precisely it hit the tee. Ireneusz Czop as Franciszek Kalina, Maciej Stuhr as Józef Kalina, brother of Franciszek, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz as the rector, Zuzana Fialová as Justyna, granddaughter of Sudecki, Andrzej Mastalerz as Janusz Pawlak, Zbigniew Zamachowski as police Sgt. Włodzimierz Nowak, Danuta Szaflarska as the elderly herbalist

• all these actors did a marvelous and very deep performance, and the very core of the problem is shown extremely well. Thye final discovery is so tragic for Kalina Brothers, so bad, so terrible to know, that one of them cannot bear the truth anymore, and the other does what he really has to. The final scene with Jewsish relatives of murdered locals is deeply sad, touching, and really great. I highly recommend this excellent film and commend it 10 out of 10. This is a superb work of Wladyslaw Pasikowski - he did his real best.

Inspired by the true Holocaust related incident that took place in Poland during the Second World War, Aftermath tells the story of two brothers who unearth a shocking secret about their hometown that hasn't been spoken of ever since the war ended. Franciszek Kalina has returned from Chicago to his hometown after decades & discovers that his brother Józef has been shunned by the entire community for acquiring many Jewish tombstones which were once used as pavement for a now abandoned road. As the residents grow more hostile towards them, the brothers attempt to find out what really happened to all the Jewish residents only to discover a truth that'll scar them for life.

Brilliantly directed by Władysław Pasikowski, the first act of the film is kind of slow, less informative & tells a completely different story than what's presented in the second & third acts. Nicely photographed, superbly acted, finely scored & becoming potent in the middle of the story from where it feels like this film will explode any moment & eventually does when the devastating secrets about the fate of the town's Jews are finally revealed.

On an overall scale, Aftermath (Pokłosie) could've been a better film if it had used a more tighter narrative but nonetheless manages to achieve what it set out to do & brings on the screen a horrifying secret that many around the world still aren't aware of and ends up delivering an even more powerful punch that won't be easily forgotten. Undoubtedly deserving a wider global audience, Aftermath is one film you shouldn't miss out if you're game for Holocaust-related cinema.

I have become increasingly interested in films and books that address the topic of Polish anti-Semitism. Initially, I approached the topic defensively. How, I wondered, did France and Italy get so conveniently off the hook in the post war years, when the capitulation and collaboration with the Nazis that occurred in those countries is indisputable? Poland's government was the only one that did not capitulate to the Nazis during World War II, and that is part of the reason Warsaw was reduced to rubble. Nazi punishment for Poles during the war was exceptionally harsh; whole families were put to death for harboring Jews.

"Aftermath," directed by Wladyslaw Pasikowski, is another example of a new generation of Polish writers and artists coming to terms with a dark past. The film begins with the return of a man to his hometown after 20 years of living in Chicago. Something is clearly amiss. His brother has inexplicably begun unearthing Jewish gravestones that were used as paving blocks after the war. The neighbors are unaccountably hostile. The buried secrets concern the wartime fate of the local Jews who, contrary to official history, were not deported by the Nazi occupiers but massacred in a single day by their Gentile neighbors. Released in Poland in 2012, "Aftermath" reignited the controversy that surrounded the publication in 2000 of the book "Neighbors" by Jan T. Gross, a searing account of the covered-up slaughter in Jedwabne, a once half-Jewish village in northeastern Poland where hundreds of Jews, including children, were murdered in a savage pogrom in 1941.

In "Afternmath," Poles, accustomed to seeing themselves as victims during World War II, are confronted with an incident in which their countrymen had been victimizers. Nationalists were incensed. Others found this revelation evidence of a nation coming to terms with its disturbing past. Pasikowski saw the subject as material for a movie. "The film isn't an adaptation of the book, which is documented and factual, but the film did grow out of it, since it was the source of my knowledge and shame," he has said. "Aftermath," which is set around 2001, at the time of the Jedwabne debate (to which the film never explicitly refers) in the same rural region of northeast Poland, and draws not only on the book "Neighbors" but also the 1996 documentary "Shtetl," made by Marian Marzynski to create not a documentary but an impassioned plea for truth no matter how ugly.

Obsessed with the idea of rescuing the remnants of Jewish life, Pasikowski's protagonist, Jozef Kalina (Maciej Stuhr), is subjected to intense hostility. Jozef is ostracized by his neighbors. His wife, unable to withstand the pressure, leaves for Chicago. His older brother, Franciszek (Ireneusz Czop), who departed Poland on the eve of the 1981 declaration of martial law, returns to investigate and finds himself unwillingly drawn into his brother's mission, excavating the past with increasingly violent and ultimately devastating results.

Unfortunately this movie was used as propaganda tool from two opposite sides. I'd recommend not to seek any relationship to any facts as you won't find any. Simply enjoy the movie for what was created - an artistic value with universal message.

I was not aware of Poland banning this movie. As a matter of fact there were some Poles (too many) that sold out Jews to Germans. There were many (too many)Poles executed along with the whole family for hiding Jews.

In Yad Vashem majority of trees, symbolizing those who saved Jews, have Polish names. As a matter of fact most of these trees symbolize Polish families. It should be many, many more, but some Poles decided to take an award from God, never from people.

My father was risking his life by smuggling grain in a street car passing through ghetto. The bags were hidden in the motor compartment and at some secluded spots he was ripping these bags open. Little kids were swarming around grain and quickly filling their cans. For them it was the only meal the whole family could have. I don't think he ever heard "thank you" for doing it, however he enjoyed living the life of a decent man.