My growing interest in history and war drama brought me to watching even foreign films. Last weekend I had the chance to come across this film. It has English subtitles so for the next 135 minutes, my eyes were glued to the screen. It contains graphic scenes and extreme violence as it tries to tell the historically accurate events that transpired in Poland decades ago. Moreover, this is the most disturbing and brutal film I have ever watched to date. If you do not have the stomach to endure slash films, this one is not for you.
After the 1939 Soviet and Nazi invasions, the people of Southeast Poland underwent a third and even more terrible ordeal when they were subjected to mass genocide by the Ukrainian Nationalists. Tens of thousands of Poles were tortured and murdered, not by foreign invaders, but by their fellow citizens-sometimes neighbors, relatives, and former friends, This film, the first to tell this tragic tale, vividly depicts the atrocities experienced by the Polish people costing them 100,000 brutal deaths. Ukrainians suffered as well with over 15,000 casualties from Polish retaliatory attacks.
The film revolves around Zosia, a young Polish girl whose simple life suddenly changed in the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939. Despite being in love with her childhood friend Pietro, a Ukrainian, she was forced to marry Maciej, a Polish widower twice her age. Zosia's parents believed it would be better for Zosia to marry a wealthy Polish than a Ukrainian. World War 2 erupted and brought themselves to fighting the Soviets in the eastern front. Zosia's now husband, Maciej fought for Poland but eventually lost. He was sent home along with his other comrades and witnessed firsthand the brutalities of the Ukrainians when the latter killed his companions.
Back home, Zosia now pregnant with Pietro's child patiently tended to Maciej's farm and children. Despite Maciej's return, she rekindled her affair with Pietro. When orders to send Polish to forced labor camps in Siberia took effect, Maciej and his family were loaded in trains. Already feeling labor contractions, Zosia and Maciej's children were released from the train by the Soviet guards after Pietro bribed them with stolen vodkas. While giving birth inside Pietro's house as assisted by his mother, Pietro was shot to death by a Soviet soldier for stealing vodkas.
Just when people think things will remain stable under the communist rule of the Soviets, the German Nazis invaded Poland after their launch of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. They were kind to both Polish and Ukrainian citizens but unforgiving of the Jewish population therein.
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