User Reviews

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.

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.

Not too long ago, many were slaughtered, and there was a fraction that got all the attention and the blame. The problem is that there were parties that just stood by while others committed these crimes and/or either approved or even participated in their execution. The film explores how there was more to history than we have been exposed to, that the horrors were worse than anything we could imagine, and the devil shows his ugly face in more than one way.

Two brothers find themselves at the heart of the story, which begins as a some type of thriller/conspiracy the likes of which we have seen before. For a while the spirit of "Chinatown" comes to mind, and a beautifully crafted film slowly unfurls a narrative where the mystery expands, the cast of the dueling parties grows as new layers are revealed, and eventually the film combines elements seen in old fashioned thrillers, horror movies, and even a touch of noir here and there.

What takes the film to a higher category is that what we see here has basis on real historical events, and as we realize this, our souls hurt because the pain is too much, and it might be that there is the possibility that we can become one of the parties involved. After all, free will has always been at the core of the worst human decisions in history. Either we want to destroy, to save, or to remain quiet and allow the evils to continue and grow. Liars have for years assisted those who either killed or stole, and they condoned quietly the actions of others by not interfering.

Films like these makes us remember how ignorant we are, in many different degrees by either not learning enough, not being willing to change and by not facing what really exists in our own souls.

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.

Obsessed with righting a wrong, a small-time farmer manages to put himself at odds with his family as well as neighbors when his actions threaten to reveal a long-hidden and notorious secret of a little community. His brother, returning after thirty years abroad, gets caught in the turmoil. Uncertain of the magnitude of the emotions they are dealing with, the depth of concealed pain, or even what exactly happened and who deserves the blame, the two brothers struggle as much with each other as they do attempting to make things right. The story is intriguing from the outset and the few actors are capable, yet depth is lacking in terms of dialog, scenery, and events. The characters do not seem as genuine or animated as they might be.

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.

"Aftermath" (2012 release from Poland: 2014 DVD release in the US; 107 min.) brings the fictional story of the aftermath of WWII in a rural village in Poland. As the movie opens, we see Francis Kalina landing at Warsaw's airport. We later learn that he basically left/fled Poland for the US when General Jaruzelski declared martial law in 1981 and that this is his first time back in 20 years (thus setting the movie in the early '00s). Francis comes to visit his younger brother Jozef who runs a small farm. It's not long before we notice that the villagers seem to despise Jozef. We then learn that Jozef has taken a personal interest in restoring tomb stones of local Jews who were murdered by the Germans in WWII, and Jozef is recreating a cemetery on his farm one by one with the tomb stones he recovers. Meanwhile, in a parallel story, things seem askew with the property title of Jozef's farm. To tell you more about this plot-heavy movie would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: I saw this movie recently at a film festival (more on that later). I had never heard of the movie, and didn't know anything about it or the plot going in. I was surprised how long it took for the true story lines to emerge. When Jozef, the younger brother, is assaulted in a café a good 30-40 min. into the movie for no apparent reason, I made the mental note... "why?". The story line involving the property titles is developed even later, about an hour into the movie. Frankly, by then I was about to give up on the movie. I decided to hang in there, and yes, the last 30-40 min. redeem the movie to a degree. Perhaps one of the reasons that I had trouble connecting is that I was not all that impressed with the acting performances, I mean, you truly watch them "act" when in a film you shouldn't feel as if you are watching "acting", you know what I mean? All that aside, the historic background and ulterior intentions of the movie can never be in doubt, and just from that angle, this is something people should watch.

I recently saw "Aftermath" at the 2015 Jewish & Israeli Film Festival here in Cincinnati. The screening was sold out, but more importantly, the organizers have assembled a top-notch quality line-up of movies such as The Green Prince, Dancing in Jaffa, and The Third Half, just to name those. As a movie buff and a support of the Israeli cause, I absolutely love this festival. As to "Aftermath", the movie is well-intended but takes forever to establish, so I'm giving it a mixed 3.5 stars: not bad but not great either.

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.

Construction worker returns, meagrely equipped, from the US to his anti-Semitic Polish village to spend time with his farmer brother, whose eccentric collecting habits have, it emerges, estranged not only his wife and family but also the villagers. They and the brothers' late farming parents have a past that requires some detective work to unravel in an increasingly disconcerting history. Short on humour (unless that is supposed to be found in the amnesiac shopper) or much female interest, the story moves in fits and starts with some lack of confidence in its pacing, and occasional clunkiness of narrative and symbolism. An important line of comment, towards the end, fails to make the sub- titles. As so often happens, the director feels the need to substitute frantic for grim, and the characterisation of the brothers is not altogether sure-footed. More than competently shot by Pawel Edelman (The Pianist) with a muted teal-and-orange colour palette, but with somewhat clumsy Foley, this is not a delicate film: less Ida, more Straw Dogs, though thematically linked with both, and perhaps with a too- generous helping of Polish self-flagellation. Moral, but not uplifting, it ultimately leaves the viewer in a void. However, a robust, and certainly not wasted, 104 minutes.

Good Day, I registered to IMDb for the first time, just for this title... This is very important moment of polish history and very important movie to understand this history. I must confess first that I'm from family very close connected to connected to WWII Underground Home Army in Warsaw. Is someone has something to say about ghettos in Warsaw and Nazi occupation, my family was part of it from creating opposition to lost life in Auschwitz. My uncle died in Auschwitz for being family of important man before 1939. He was 16 years old boy. Pole, not Jew. Whole my family was destined to die in Auschwitz, but managed to avoid it, except my young uncle... Back to movie. My family was in Warsaw, was in underground and... was helping Jews in Ghetto and I also have Jew family (and proud of it). It was very hard to believe that Jedwabne and similar facts happened, especially for my grand dad, but... Even thought he was victim of denunciation, he was also victim of small peasant communities; like Jedwabne. He had to pay to not be arrested by Gestapo and he had to pay with family precious relics and everything he had. Just because peasants knew who he was. And he had to eat. Probably we will never know how many people died because of mentality of people like in "Poklosie"... Creators of "Poklosie" including actors are "enemy of the state", but many people still remember who made money for deaths. Yes, I know, it's short and not important comment, but if you know how less popular version of polish history looked like - watch the movie. No, it was not always like this - this is why most Israelis has polish roots, but we should remember of German, French, Dutch, French, Russian and other people who helped Nazis just for money.

No comment. you just have to see this movie, no matter what you think. With Kind Regards, B. Radziszewski

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.

Besides West Germany under Konrad Adenauer and later governments, no other European country did any serious effort to admit their role in Jewish deportation and final annihilation during the Nazi era of WWII.

East Germany persistently denied having had anything to do with it and Austria still considers itself as having being "occupied" by the Nazis instead of the truth, which is having joyful joined Hitler's Germany as seen in old news reels with hundreds of thousands enthusiastic people in the street parades, welcoming the Germans troops at the "Anschluss".

Poland (as France, Switzerland and other countries) preferred to ignore any kind of collaboration or sympathy for the Nazi regime.

Switzerland closed his frontiers to countless Jews, which was tantamount to sent them back to a clear death.

The Vatican accepted a very small number of Jews in the Vatican State as alibi, but did not intervene at Hitler as it should morally have done. Pope Pius XII is supposed to have believed that the Jews historically deserved in a certain way that punishment, but of course the Vatican denies it.

France had to wait very long time until President Chirac was the first who had the courage to recognize the French active collaboration in the deportation of French Jews (including hundreds of very small children!) to the German death camps. He apologized in the name of the French nation. A noble gesture!

His predecessor President Mitterand (who had a dubious role during the occupation, although supposedly having been a "socialist") had before Chirac strongly denied any guilt of his country and had found "no reason to apologize". He even protected during his presidency some "old friends" who were directly responsible for having organized those deportations, people who had made even more "efforts" to carry out their sinister task, than what the Nazis requested from them!

At the time of the hopeless, desperate and heroic revolt at the Jewish Getto of Warsaw, the Polish underground partisans refused to supply the Jewish fighters with weapons or help them in any way... unless they paid for it which was not possible since within the Getto they were starving to death!

If the Germans undertook to get rid of the Polish Jews, well, it was not such a bad idea after all. In any case not a Polish problem at all!. "The less Jews in Poland, the better", was the general feeling in Poland during the Nazi occupation (with some noble exceptions of very courageous Poles who risked their own life to hide Jews). Besides, as shown in the film, it allowed many Poles to get hold of the houses, land properties and other possessions of all the "disappeared" Jews, something which of course also took place in other European countries.

This film, made by a (non Jewish! very courageous) film maker, created unsurprisingly a great turmoil in Poland. Wladyslaw Pasikowski was even accused to be a "a polish hater". However the facts it tells are entirely true although the names, for obvious reasons, were changed and some details added or modified for cinematographic reasons.

This film, together with "Schindler's List" is a MILLESTONE in the films describing WWII and the Holocaust.

No doubt it is very difficult to accept for Polish citizens. They will willingly see the film about the Katyn massacre organized by Stalin (a film in which Wladyslaw Pasikowski collaborated as well) since it concerned Polish victims. However most of them do not want to know anything about the sad role that Poland played towards their Jews during the German occupation (and long before with "Numerus Clausus" for Jews in educational institutes, restriction where Jews were allowed to live, countless Pogroms, etc.).

Whoever wants to have a comprehensive view of the Nazi era in Europe SHOULD see this film.

The arguments others brought here against this film are in my opinion fallacious. No film is perfect and no historical film is 100% identical to the facts it tells. However even if some events might be slightly changed, the true point of the film is to reveal the attitude of most Poles during the Nazi occupation towards their Jewish fellow citizens.

Unfortunately, although the number of Jews presently living in Poland can easily be neglected, strangely enough Antisemitism is still very strong in present day Poland. (Antisemitism without Jews!!!!) An interesting example is for instance Lech Walesa. He is no doubt a hero from the Polish point of view but that does not change his negative feelings towards Jews.

Antisemitism (and his present forms of Antiisraelism, Antizionism and so on) are still a sad reality with different degrees of violence in most countries in the world in the 21th century.

Antisemitism in Poland is a many hundred years phenomenon with a special, additional fact non present in other European countries in which Pogroms against Jews also took place, the strong Polish catholicism and the old catholic accusation "Jews killed Jesus" taken seriously by the illiterate people (ignoring that actually the Romans crucified Jesus and that Jesus was himself a Jew!).

How many people know for instance that at his time, Chopin refused to play in a concert hall... if he learned that Jews were among the public? That does not diminish at all, of course, the great musical value of Chopin's music but just shows that he also was "a true Pole", from this dark point of view as well.

To sum up, this is an astounding film and well worth to see!!! Whoever sees it without being in advance biased against it, will not forget it!

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 not propaganda- its a story loosely based on well documented and proved historical facts. Many Poles had a hand in the massacre of Jews (proved) and many Poles were deported or killed as well (because they wouldn't give up the Jews). The user who posted that review should really get their facts straight because what they are saying is bordering on antisemitism. Either way, I reported the post to IMDb so they will decide if it stays or is removed

This is not propaganda- its a story loosely based on well documented and proved historical facts. Many Poles had a hand in the massacre of Jews (proven) and many Poles were deported or killed as well (because they wouldn't give up the Jews). The user who posted that review should really get their facts straight because what they are saying is bordering on antisemitism. Either way, I reported the post to IMDb so they will decide if it stays or is removed

One of the best Holocaust film I have ever seen! A must see film.