12-12-2007

Life for a Life project has successful launch

By

    The Polish film A Life for a Life, which tell the stories of courageous Poles who gave their lives to help Jews during World War II, had a successful launch this month as part of a project to break down unjust stereotypes about Poles and the Holocaust.

    The documentary is structured from 10 stories about Polish families who did their utmost to help Jews, stories that were chosen from thousands of testimonies collected by the "A Life for a Life" organization.

    The cinema premiere took place on Dec. 5, followed the next day with a screening in public broadcaster TVP seen by 375,000 viewers, Maciej Pawlicki, a journalist and the creator of the project, told FNE that TVP is planning to run the documentary again on TVP2, TVP Polonia and TVP History in order to reach as many people as possbible. The film has an English-dubbed version and the "A Life for a Life" organization is planning screenings in England, Germany, the USA and Israel.

    Aside from breaking down false stereotypes, the film also pays homage to those who died while helping the Jewish people. "A Life for a Life" was funded by the Polish Culture Ministry. Along with the website www.zyciezazycie.pl, it is part of the education project "Patriotism of Tomorrow". The creators of the movie also cooperated with the Institute of National Remembrance, responsible for adressing delicate issues in Polish history.

    The film is just the first step. The second part is the production of three full feature documentary films for the commission of TVP, Pawlicki said.

    "Each of these movies will be devoted to just one story. They will be directed by Andrzej Trzos-Rastawiecki, Maciej Dejczer, Arkadiusz Gołębiewski and myself," he said.