RESEARCH OVERVIEW: “This picture is a little horrific”. The story of a film, or the Polish nation face-to-face with the Jew Cover Image

Z WARSZTATÓW BADAWCZYCH: „Ten obraz jest trochę straszliwy”. Historia pewnego filmu, czyli naród polski twarzą w twarz z Żydem
RESEARCH OVERVIEW: “This picture is a little horrific”. The story of a film, or the Polish nation face-to-face with the Jew

Author(s): Iwona Kurz
Subject(s): History
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów & IFiS PAN
Keywords: Polish-Jewish relations; representation of the Holocaust in film; visual memory

Summary/Abstract: The article is an analysis of Janusz Nasfeter’s film, Długa noc [A Long Night] (1967), and the discussion during the producer’s screening in June 1967, concerning the film’s merit and approving its distribution. Both the subject matter of the film (helping a Jew hiding in a Polish home during the occupation) and the circumstances of its producer’s screening (several days after the Israeli victory in the Six-Day War) enable it to be seen as a model: the film itself and its reception are largely characteristic of the Polish memory and attitudes to the Jews during the war, its forms of expression in Polish film, and the language of public debate on this issue.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 466-483
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish