Aftermath

AFTERMATH was the winner of the Yad Vashem Award at the 2013 Jerusalem Film Festival and the Critics' Prize at the 2012 Gdynia Film Festival, Poland's most important festival.

AFTERMATH tells the story of two brothers, Jozek (Maciej Stuhr) and Franek (Ireneusz Czop) who discover a secret and are forced to revise their perception of their father, their entire family, their neighbors, and the history of their nation. Franek, the older brother, returns home to Poland after many years living in Chicago and discovers that his younger brother is being mysteriously threatened and shunned by local townspeople. What follows is a gothic tale of intrigue as the brothers are drawn into investigating the village's dark secrets.

Upon the release of this film in its native Poland, AFTERMATH received intense criticism from Polish nationals, who accused the film of being "anti-Polish propaganda" and a gross manipulation of historical truth. AFTERMATH has so riled the Polish right wing that it has been banned from some local cinemas, while its leading actor, Maciej Stuhr, has received death threats.


Director's Statement:
The peaceful and quiet Polish village where the brothers grew up, a prime example of the idyllic beauty of the Polish countryside, turns out to harbor a dark and terrible secret: the collective murder of its Jewish inhabitants during World War II. This dark chapter of our history is one of the few remaining stories never to have been shown on film. AFTERMATH tells that story through the lives of ordinary people who have nothing to do with politics, by showing their fundamental decency and uprightness, their baseness and lies. We are always given a choice in life. This film is about making that choice.