Tell Me Why

That one thing that is most difficult to discuss, and which happens to only so few of us… love. We dream of it, we struggle to find it… and want to believe that if we only do, the world will become a better place. But what if love comes to us at a time we ought to forget? What happens when love is intimately linked with tragedy? Read more below.

That one thing that is most difficult to discuss, and which happens to only so few of us… love. We dream of it, we struggle to find it… and want to believe that if we only do, the world will become a better place. But what if love comes to us at a time we ought to forget? What happens when love is intimately linked with tragedy?

A Polish Jew, Jurek Kamieniecki was just shy of 20 when the Second World War broke out in Poland. Together with his wife Stella they managed to survive the first year of the German occupation with the help of their Polish friend Janusz Malinowski. Janusz helped Jurek enter the Polish Home Army (AK) resistance and provided him and his family with false IDs. Thanks to this, in early 1940 Stella found asylum in the territories occupied by the Soviet Red Army. Though Jurek managed to illegally cross the border to see his wife, he chose to go back to the Polish partisan troops and continue resisting Nazi occupation.

Just as the Holocaust was about to reach its peak in Poland, Stella crossed back over the border to be rejoined with her sweetheart. Needless to say, dramatic events followed. After some time in the Warsaw Ghetto, Stella ended up in the ghetto in her hometown of Otwock. There, she lost her parents, her siblings, and her cousins. Jurek, together with his friend Janusz showed up just in time to rescue her from being deported to a death camp.

Directed and written by:
Malgorzata Imielska

Photography:
Tomasz Tupalski

Sound:
Lukasz Nowicki & Piotr Zaczek

Editing:
Ewa Smal

Music:
Fiodor Korol-Borodziuk

Performed by:
Kazimierz Chudek

Producer:
Wojciech Szczudlo

Production Studio:
Studio Filmowe Kalejdoskop with Telewizja Polska S.A.

AWARDS

• An Award “Bronze Remi” at the 40th International Independent Film Festival, Huston, USA 2007

• First Award at the International Film Festival “Cross Roads of the Europe”, Lublin, Poland 2007

• Special Mention at the Kiev Film Festival, Ukraine 2007

• Nomination as Best Historical Documentary Film at TV Festival in Shanghai, China 2007

• Special Mention at Kanton International Film Festival 2007

• Special Mention as the Most Innovate film in Chengda Film Festival/Sichuan Province/China 2007

• Award of the President of Association of Polish Filmmakers and an Audience Award at the 46th International Krakow Film Festival, Poland 2006

• Award of the “Society of Authors” at the “III International Film Festiwal Jewish Motifs”, Warsaw, Poland 2006

• TVP1

PUBLICITY PHOTOS

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