Wielki tydzieŃ

Warsaw 1943: In April, an insurgency takes place in the Warsaw Ghetto. Jewish Irena Lilien can only narrowly avoid imprisonment by the Gestapo. She finds shelter in the flat of her former lover Jan Malecki and his pregnant wife Anna. Whereas the young woman supports Irina, Jan begins to have doubts about his decision to help her. Yet he is incapable of asking Irina to leave. The other inhabitants of the house likewise have concerns for their own security. Slowly, the situation comes to a head and culminates in a decision for or against humanity.

The 1995 German-French-Polish co-production is based on a story by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewki, who had also written the original novel and later the screenplay for Andrzej Wajda’s award-winning film POPIÓŁ I DIAMENT (Ashes and Diamonds, 1958). As early as in 1968, Wajda commissioned Andrzej Żuławski and Jerzy Andrzejewski with writing a screenplay version of the novel. Yet the Jewish subject matter touched on a taboo in a time, when the communist regime pressed ahead with anti-Semitic hate campaigns. Wadja eventually filmed the story in 1995 and focuses on the Jewish population's behaviour against the background of the persecution of Jews.

With great empathy he illustrates the degree of personal ethics remaining at that time.