Volhynia (film)

Volhynia (Polish: Wołyń) is a 2016 Polish war drama directed by Wojciech Smarzowski. The film is set in the 1939–1943 time frame and its central theme is Ukrainian anti-Polish hatred culminating in massacres of Poles in Volhynia. The screenplay was based on the collection of short stories titled "Hate" (Polish: "Nienawiść") by Stanisław Srokowski.
The film was nominated for the Golden Lions Award at the 41st Gdynia Film Festival, where it received three awards: for the cinematography, best debut, and best makeup.
Production.
As the budget of the film was insufficient, the director appealed to the public for financial support in order to gather required funds to finish the film. Afterwards, the financial support was received from, for example, Telewizja Polska.
Filming took place in: Lublin, Kolbuszowa, Kazimierz Dolny, Rawa Mazowiecka, Sanok and Skierniewice, from 19 September 2014 to 21 August 2015.
Plot.
The movie tells the story of young Polish girl, Zosia Głowacka, from Volhynia's a village settled by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. 
The story begins shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939 with the marriage of Zosia's sister to a Ukrainian. During the wedding, Zosia's father decides that she will
marry an older village administrator, Maciej Skiba, despite her being deeply in love with a local, young Ukrainian boy, Petro. There is also resentment shown by the local Ukrainian population towards Polish officials, as they favor the Polish minority in Volhynia. In talks between the participants of the wedding, it is revealed that some Ukrainians carry out terrorist attacks against Polish authorities and Ukrainian collaborators, these attacks are met with severe actions from the Polish government, including closing Orthodox churches and the humiliation of the Ukrainian population. It is also shown that some parts of the Ukrainian and Polish populations try to reconcile with each other.
When the war begins, Maciej is conscripted to the Polish Army to fight against the Germans in the September Campaign. When the campaign is lost, Maciej and other survivors try to return to their homes. On their way back, all members of the group, except Maciej, are captured by local Ukrainians, tortured and killed. Maciej manages to get to the village only by disguising himself as a Ukrainian. The village is in the eastern part of the Poland, which is occupied by the Soviet Union, and communist rule is established in the village. The local Ukrainian and Jewish populations co-operate with the Soviet authorities, replacing prewar Polish authorities as governors of the village.
In the meantime, Zosia gets pregnant, most likely with Petro, but wants Maciej to believe that the child is his. As part of a massive deportation carried by the Soviets against the Poles in 1939–1941, Maciej, Zosia, and Maciej's children from his first marriage are about to be sent to Siberia or Kazakhstan as forced labour. Zosia and the children are rescued in last moment, just as the train is about to depart, Petro
bribes the guard with vodka. When they come back to Petro's home, Zosia gets contractions. While she is giving birth to her child, the guard arrives and kills Petro. Zosia then takes care of Maciej's home and children during his absence. The children are sent to a school organized by the Soviets, where all children learn to inform against their parents and to give up on their religion.
The plot then switches to 1941, when the German Army is conquering Volhynia during Operation Barbarossa. In the new situation, the same Ukrainians who welcomed the Soviets two years before now greet the Germans with vodka and bread. The Germans begin to kill local Jews and organize local police units from Ukrainian collaborators, who actively participate in the Holocaust of the Jews. However, people like Zosia and some Ukrainians still try to help the Jews by hiding them in safe places.
In the meantime, Maciej comes back home after he managied to escape deportation. The family tries to organize its life in the changed reality, as the Poles face increased hostility from their Ukrainian neighbours, even more than at the beginning of the war. There are increasing murders of Poles by Ukrainians. In that situation, Maciej sets out to the local market despite Zosia's protests, who is afraid for his safety. She is proven right, as the other Polish neighbours arrive some days later with Maciej's head cut off by the Ukrainians.
Zosia tries to get by as best she can while she takes care of the children. However, one day, she defends herself against an attempted rape by a Ukrainian policeman, and the presence of the Jews hidden by her is revealed. The Jews, an old couple and a young unrelated boy, escape and find shelter for the winter in the home of a local Ukrainian, who agrees to help after the Jew promises him a large amount of money. When the Jew's wife dies and winter comes, the Ukrainian demands the payment. When he asees that the Jew cannot pay him, he kills him in the forest. The young Jew is rescued by the Ukrainian's son, a friend.
Finally, to the summer of 1943, news of the killings of Poles by Ukrainians spreads among the Poles in the village. At the time, a young Polish man who is seriously injured arrives at Zosia's home. When he recovers, he settles there as it makes Zosia feel safer. He contacts a local Home Army unit, which, by orders of the Polish government in the United Kingdom, does not protect the Poles from Ukrainian attacks but prepares to fight the Germans in the future. When Zosia's man is asked to be a guide for members of the Home Army on the way to a meeting with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Zosia desperately tries to discourage him from going. A fails however. When the two members of the Home Army arrive at the meeting, as agreed without weapons, they are surrounded by the UPA soldiers, captured, and then dismembered by horses. The men from the UPA then hunt for the rest of the Home Army group. They find only Zosia's friend, who has escaped and is hiding in a church that is full of Poles. During a sermon, the Ukrainians enter the church, killing everyone in the way, but Zosia's friend runs to the church's tower and somehow survives the attack.
In the meantime, the local Ukrainian population, the former Ukrainian policeman and his friends join the UPA in the forest. They gather and call to eradicate the lands from Poles. There are two sermons from the Ukrainian Orthodox priests shown: one who preaches about loving neighbours and the one calling to kill all Poles to achieve pure Ukrainian lands at last and consecrateing the pitchforks, hammers and knives used by Ukrainians to murder their Polish neighbours.
Soon, the first survivors of the pogroms arrive to the village and tell the story of Ukrainian neighbours killing Poles and everybody who does not want to participate in killings. The local Ukrainian village administrator arrives at Zosia's home to ensure her that she and her children stay at home, as they would not be harmed by their Ukrainian neighbours. Also, other Polish people are reassured for their safety. However, those are only deception tactics to allow Ukrainians to kill as many Poles as possible.
Finally, the killings in the village begin at night. Zosia escapes with her child, but as she runs away, she sees Poles being tortured, including pregnant women being stabbed in womb, human bowels and eyes being taken out alive, people getting crucified alive on their doors and so on. Zosia's stepson is murdered during the massacre. Her stepdaughter, however, is rescued by a Ukrainian peasant. On her way to escape from certain death, Zosia arrives with her child to Petro's previous house, where she is rescued from death at the hands of Ukrainian mob, by Petro's mother.
As Zosia runs away with her child from place to place, she encounters the corpses of mutilated Polish infants, women and elderly in every village. In one place, she runs into a unit of the German Army, which saves her from certain death, just moments before Ukrainians are about to kill her and her child. The Germans are astonished at first as to why she walks alongside them, but when they find more and more stacks of murdered Poles on their way, they feel sorry for her and escort her to the place where her sister, Helena, lives. She is welcomed there, as Vasyl, Helena's Ukrainian husband, is friendly to Poles. Zosia hides in their shed with her son. As most of the village's population is already involved in killings, Vasyl's brother tries to convince him to join the nationalists and to kill his Polish wife so that he can save himself and the children. As they wrangle, Vasyl kills his own brother with an axe.
The next night, the whole family is attacked by Poles who seek revenge on Ukrainians. They condemn Helena for living with a Ukrainian, slaughter her newborn in front of her eyes and kill Vasyl and behead her. Zosia observes everything from the shed. Terrified, she escapes again and is now afraid of both Ukrainians and Poles. She hides in the woods with her son.
Reception.
In Poland.
In Tadeusz Sobolewski's opinion, Volhynia is a movie without precedents in Polish cinema after 1989. Piotr Zychowicz and Pawel Lisicki praised the movie, underlying its authenticity and historical accuracy. Grażyna Torbicka and Tomasz Raczek both expressed surprise the film had not received the main award at the 2016 Gdynia Film Festival in Poland. Jakub Majmurek wrote that "Volhynia" has met his high expectations and is one of the best movie describing the history of the "bleeding lands". The author also believes that the director of the movie, Smarzowski, presented the relations between Poles and Ukrainians honestly, and the notion of the movie is a warning against any form of radicalism. Ewa Siemaszko, who cooperates with the Institute of National Remembrance to uncover the historical facts of the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, thinks that the movie shows the events accurately. She quoted opinions of witnesses of the genocide, who said the movie is like a documentary on the events in Volhynia. Ewa Siemaszko additionally remarked that the massacres of Poles in Volhynia was genocide with exceptional cruelty – "genocidium atrox". It was a fierce, cruel and terrible genocide.
In Germany.
According to Gerhard Gnauck, "Volhynia" was the film that for which Polish society had long waited. On the occasion of the premiere, Gnauck recalled the history of the region and the Polish-Ukrainian relations. The author cited expectations of some political experts that the movie may chill the relations, arouse negative emotions in Ukraine and be exploited by the Russians to unleash anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Gnauck has underlined the episode of Zosia and her child seeking shelter around a unit of the German Army. In Gnauck's opinion, the film is very good and balances the rights of both sides.
In Ukraine.
Following the recommendation of the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, Andrii Deshchytsia, showing the film has been banned in Ukraine. Reportedly, the censorship was rationalized by the Ukrainian authorities, who alleged that the film "could cause unrest on the streets of Kiev". The head of the Ukrainian Association in Poland, Piotr Tyma, supported the ban by asserting that the film undermined Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation efforts. The Ukrainian media accused the director of making a biased film "based only on Polish historical sources". The first such screening was planned by the Polish embassy in Kiev. It was to have been followed by a discussion with the director. Among the Ukrainian guests invited to attend was the president, prime minister and some MPs. However, Ukraine's foreign ministry strongly recommended the Polish embassy to call off the screening for the sake of "public order". Accordingly, the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Rafał Sobczak said that the introductory screening had been cancelled. Talks might be held about a possible new date of limited viewing. The Polish Institute in Kiev followed the recommendation from Ukraine's foreign ministry and called off the presentation of a film set against the backdrop of World War II massacres.
During the production of the film, some Ukrainian actors who were invited to play characters rejected the offer after reading about them because they thought that the film propagated hate. Nevertheless, the film received positive reception from Nadiya Savchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, who welcomeed the opportunity to talk about painful events of the past and noted many positive developments in today's Polish-Ukrainian relations.