Aftermath (2012)

Interesting facts

Aftermath is a 2012 Polish film written and directed by Władysław Pasikowski. The fictional Holocaust-related thriller and drama is inspired by the July 1941 Jedwabne pogrom in occupied north-eastern Poland during Operation Barbarossa, in which 340 Polish Jews were locked in a barn in Jedwabne, which was later set on fire by a group of Polish men.

Production notes

The inspiration for Pasikowski to write and direct the film, which was originally titled Kaddish (the Jewish prayer read by those in mourning), was the controversy in Poland surrounding the 2000 publication of Neighbors by Polish-American historian Jan T. Gross.

Nationalists opposed to these findings accused Gross of anti-Polish slander and misrepresenting the historical truth. At the same time though, it inspired among Poles "a new curiosity in Polish Jewish history", including for Pasikowski. Pasikowski stated, "The film isn't an adaptation of the book, which is documented and factual, but the film did grow out of it, since it was the source of my knowledge and shame."

Over the course of about a decade, Pasikowski struggled to have the film produced. He encountered difficulties "securing financing for his controversial script" and "struggling with how to best approach what is, for many Poles, still a largely taboo subject". Ultimately, it took seven years for producer Dariusz Jabłoński to receive backing from the state film fund for Aftermath.

Aftermath was the first feature film produced by Pasikowski in a decade.

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