Poklosie

2012
Unrated
1h 47m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Maciej Stuhr and Ireneusz Czop in Poklosie (2012)

A Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.A Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.A Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

4.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins & 6 nominations total

Photos7

+ 2

User reviews21

7.34.3K

Featured reviews

9reviews1958

How dare someone review this "This movie's theme has been done to death. If you've seen one third Reich movie you've seen them all more or less.". NO we haven't!

There were 5-6 MILLION Jews killed in the Holocaust. So the one reviewer saying "This movie's theme has been done to death. If you've seen one third Reich movie you've seen them all more or less." and it has been "82 years since this happened...five movies per year done" about this horrible near-extermination. Are you kidding me? If you took only 5,000,000 Jewish lives and divided it by 82 years that would be 60,000+ thousand movies that NEED to be made per year about any and all horrific acts these monsters caused.

My review about this movie...it's not a thriller. It's a puzzle. It's an in-depth thought provoking movie that every person alive needs to see. Santayana wrote (in The Life of Reason, 1905) "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I had no idea this happened in many cities and villages throughout Europe and beyond. IF these stories are not told, even on the simplest terms, our children and future generations are condemned to repeat it. The movie may be a slow go but it is a well acted and well written movie with a haunting soundtrack.

God help the souls who choose to forget the past. We have a very real evil living among us and this could certainly happen again, at any moment.

9Its1917hrs

Excellent thriller about gruesome historical events

I feel sad for the review where one feels attacked and is explaining at length how this movie makes all Polish anti-semites. This is merely silly of course. History doesn't change by denying it. Painful but true, who ever survived the German camps and made it back was to find everything taken from them. It's a part of history and nobody has to be offended when movies are based on our gruesome events. It's no generalization.

About the movie: excellent cast, excellent story build up and absolutely worth your time. Even for those not interested in the historical part. While the story unfolds there is a intense sense of claustrophobia as the small town has to let go of generations old secrets. Daring script and great pacing.

10FilmCriticLalitRao

Director Władysław Pasikowski chooses elements from a 'thriller' film to speak about events of the past in his latest film "Pokłosie"/ "Aftermath".

It is said that history cannot be buried under the ground. It always comes out of its own accord in the future to talk about the past. This is something which viewers witness in "Aftermath" which has been set as a fast paced thriller. The story is told through the turbulent lives of two brothers Franek and Jozek who experience how their peaceful life in a small polish village is completely transformed once they come across some horrible secrets involving murders of their Jewish neighbors during second world war. Pasikowski's film succeeds from the beginning as it fights against a lot of clichés. Firstly, it is absolutely harsh against the belief that let the secrets remained buried as it would be in the interest of everybody if their currently status quo is maintained and not disturbed in future. This is not something which Kalina brothers are willing to accept readily as it was not on their minds to let the secrets be buried. They were fully aware of consequences they would have to face if they went ahead with their scheme of unearthing secrets. In this manner, Kalina brothers-Franek and Jozef make it explicitly clear that truth must come out regardless of the anguish and pain it might cause to anybody who is not able to digest it. Although the villagers are not shown in a negative light but director Pasikowski is upright when he shows that there is a lot of resentment in the minds of local people about its inhabitants who have left for USA. The role of church as depicted in this film is rather ambiguous as the local priest chose to remain neutral at a time when a lot could have been done by him to assuage sufferings. The religious angle gets prominence when the younger brother sacrifices himself in the same manner as Jesus Christ to atone for sins committed by his father. It is rather unfortunate that upon its release in Poland, Aftermath was embroiled into unnecessary controversy. One fail to understand what led some Polish people to accuse this film of being an anti Polish propaganda. Lastly, as freedom of expression is needed to understand the greatness of all works of art, it is hoped that the ban on "Aftermath" in some Polish cinemas would soon be lifted.

10denis888

Gruesome But Absolutely Outstanding

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.

CinemaClown

Adds A Whole New Chapter To World War History

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.

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Storyline

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Quotes
Franciszek Kalina: So, what made you do it?
Józef Kalina: Beats me. So many things aren't right, but we live with them anyway because there's nothing you can do about it. But I think that some things are more wrong than others. It's like, you see a guy lying drunk in the street, you walk on by, 'cause you think, "He's drunk," and you got your own problems and all. But when it's a child lying there, you just can't walk by. Understand?
Franciszek Kalina: Go on.
Józef Kalina: The Germans destroyed that cemetery. I can't help that, I wasn't even born then. They paved the road with gravestones, now that's very wrong, but I didn't know about that either. It was only when folks started talking about covering up that old road with asphalt that I thought, "No way." At first I hoped the county would do something, but then I saw people driving up and down the road, all happy that it's nice and even.
Franciszek Kalina: I understand all that, but why you? We never had anything to do with the Yids.
Józef Kalina: Beats me, I'm telling you I don't know why. It made me feel bad. I kept thinking, "This is wrong." What if someone tore up our parents' headstone and put it by the church door so folks wouldn't get their feet muddy?
Franciszek Kalina: Joziu, but these are total strangers. They're not even our people. Not to mention they've been dead 100 years. Your family's alive. Why should they suffer because of some Jewish foolery?
Józef Kalina: I know it's wrong, but I had to do it.
Franciszek Kalina: Jews in Chicago, I know what they're like... What was that about the church?
Józef Kalina: I found out that they laid some of the stones around the well.
Franciszek Kalina: Józek, don't even think about it.
Józef Kalina: Why not? The parish priest doesn't mind. He said I could take them away. That young priest's not too happy about it, but there's nothing he can do. The parish priest is on my side.
Franciszek Kalina: Just don't do it.
Józef Kalina: It's wrong, don't you see?
Franciszek Kalina: It'll end in tears, I'm telling you. What about those lumberjacks, huh? Think they beat you up for no reason?
Józef Kalina: Come on, that was about soccer. They wanted to know who I root for.
Franciszek Kalina: So you went and said Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Józef Kalina: They were drunk and looking for a fight is all.
Franciszek Kalina: [gets up from the table and holds Józef's face in his hands] Why should you, of all people, care about their dead?
Józef Kalina: Well, you know, there's no one left to look after them.