The Elephant and the Jewish Question

• In Event: The Second Government of Postwar Polish Film

Abstract

No one could fault Polish cinema—or its literature, which frequently served as the hypotext for
adaptations such as The Wedding [Wesele 1973] and The Promised Land [Ziemia obiecana
1975]—for ignoring the explosive issue of Poles’ historical relationship with its Jewish
population. Particularly Andrzej Wajda, the grand patriarch of Polish film, and his nomadic
collaborator Agnieszka Holland have addressed this volatile problem repeatedly over several
decades. Both tended to revisit World War II, triangulating the factions involved by implicit or
explicit comparisons between Polish and Nazi treatment of the Jews. Critical response by Jews
and Poles to Holland’s ironic and distanced dramatizations (Angry Harvest [Bittere Ernte 1985;
Europa, Europa 1991; In Darkness [W ciemności 2011) and particularly Wajda’s ‘gentlemanly,’
balanced portrayals (Samson 1961; Korczak [1990]; Holy Week [Wielki Tydzień 1996]) have
been largely unenthusiastic at best, some directly accusing Wajda of anti-Semitism. The twenty-
first century has shifted focus, either examining Poles’ sudden discovery of their Jewish identity
(Paweł Pawlowski’s Ida [2013] and the Jewish Adam Zucker’s documentary The Return [2014])
or tackling the horrendous tragedy of Jedwabne (Władysław Pasikowski’s Aftermath [Pokłosie
2012]). The director of such violent action/crime movies as Pigs [Psy 1992] and Pigs 2 [Psy 2:
Ostatnia krew 1994], Pasikowski in Aftermath spares no one, above all the Polish audience, in
his indictment of Poles as murderous anti-Semites. Is the film, which outraged Poles, simply a
displaced version of Pigs? Or, on the basis of the film’s choice of event, participants, and on-
screen representation, may one deduce Pasikowski’s commitment to a principled, unsentimental
confrontation of Poland’s troubled and highly controversial past soft-pedaled by older directors?

Author

• Helena Goscilo, Ohio State U