Volhynia (film)

As the budget of the film was insufficient, the director appealed to the public for financial support in order to gather required funds to finish the film.[3] Afterwards, the financial support was received from, for example, Telewizja Polska.[4]

Filming took place in: Lublin, Kolbuszowa, Kazimierz Dolny, Rawa Mazowiecka, Sanok and Skierniewice, from 19 September 2014 to 21 August 2015.

Cerkiew z Grąziowej, some scenes to the movie were recorded in the Orthodox Church in 2014

The movie tells the story of young Polish girl, Zosia Głowacka, from Volhynia's a village settled by Ukrainians, Poles and Jews.[5] The story begins shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939 with the marriage of Zosia's sister to a Ukrainian. During the wedding, Zosia's father decides that she will marry an older village administrator, Maciej Skiba, despite her being deeply in love with a local, young Ukrainian boy, Petro. There is also resentment shown by the local Ukrainian population towards Polish officials, as they favor the Polish minority in Volhynia. In talks between the participants of the wedding, it is revealed that some Ukrainians carry out terrorist attacks against Polish authorities and Ukrainian collaborators, these attacks are met with severe actions from the Polish government, including closing Orthodox churches and the humiliation of the Ukrainian population. It is also shown that some parts of the Ukrainian and Polish population's are trying to reconcile with each other.

When the war begins, Maciej is conscripted to the Polish Army to fight against the Germans in the September Campaign. When the campaign is lost, Maciej and other survivors try to return to their homes. On their way back, all members of the group, except Maciej, are captured by local Ukrainians, tortured and killed. Maciej manages to get to the village only by disguising himself as a Ukrainian. The village is in the eastern part of the Poland occupied by the Soviet Union, and communist rule is established in the village. The local Ukrainian and Jewish populations co-operate with the Soviet authorities, replacing pre-war Polish authorities as governors of the village.

In the meantime, Zosia gets pregnant, most likely with Petro, but wants Maciej to believe that the child is his. As part of a massive deportation carried by the Soviets against the Poles in 1939–1941, Maciej, Zosia, and Maciej's children from his first marriage are about to be sent to Siberia or Kazakhstan as forced labor. Zosia and the children are rescued in last moment, just as the train is about to depart, Petro bribes the guard with vodka. When they come back to Petro's home, Zosia gets contractions. While she is giving birth to her child, the guard arrives and kills Petro. Zosia then takes care of Maciej's home and children during his absence. The children are sent to a school organized by the Soviets where all children learn to inform against their parents and give up on their religion.

The plot then switches to 1941, when the German Army is conquering Volhynia during Operation Barbarossa. In the new situation, the same Ukrainians who welcomed the Soviets two years before, now greet the Germans with vodka and bread. The Germans begin to kill local Jews and organize local police units from Ukrainian collaborators, who actively participate in the Holocaust of the Jews. However, people like Zosia and some Ukrainians still try to help the Jews by hiding them in safe places.

In the meantime, Maciej comes back home managing to escape from deportation. The family is trying to organize their life in a changed reality, as Poles face increased hostility from their Ukrainian neighbours, growing to a level even higher than at the beginning of the war. There is an increasing number of murders of Poles by Ukrainians. In this situation, Maciej sets out to the local market despite Zosia's protests, who is afraid for his safety. She is proven right, as the other Polish neighbours arrive some days later with Maciej's head cut off by the Ukrainians.

Zosia is trying to get by as best she can whilst taking care of the children. However, one day, when she is defending herself against an attempted rape by a Ukrainian policeman, the presence of the Jews hidden by her is revealed. The Jews (an old couple and a young unrelated boy) escape and find shelter for the winter in the home of a local Ukrainian, who agrees to help after the Jew promises him a large amount of money. When the Jew's wife dies and winter goes by, the Ukrainian demands the payment. When he sees that the Jew cannot pay him, he kills him in the forest. The young Jew is rescued by the Ukrainian's son, a friend of his.

The plot finally goes to the summer of 1943 when news of killings of Poles by Ukrainians spreads among the Poles in the village. At the time, a young Polish man, seriously injured, arrives at Zosia's home. When he recovers, he settles there as it makes Zosia feel safer. He contacts a local Home Army unit, which by orders of the Polish government in the United Kingdom does not protect the Polish population from Ukrainian attacks, but are prepared to fight against Germans in the future. When Zosia's man is asked to be a guide for members of the Home Army on the way to a meeting with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Zosia desperately tries to discourage him from going. A fails however. When the two members of the Home Army arrive at the meeting, as agreed without weapons, they are surrounded by the UPA soldiers, captured, and then dismembered by horses. The men from the UPA then hunt for the rest of the Home Army group. They only find Zosia's friend, who escaped and is hiding in a church, which is full of Poles. During a sermon, the Ukrainians enter the church, killing everyone in the way, but Zosia's friend runs to the church's tower and somehow survives the attack.

In the meantime, the local Ukrainian population, the former Ukrainian policeman and his mates join, in the forest the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. They are gathering together calling to eradicate the lands from Poles. There are two sermons from the Ukrainian Orthodox priests shown: one who preaches about loving thy neighbour, and the second, who calls to kill all Poles to finally achieve 'pure' Ukrainian lands and consecrates the pitchforks, hammers and knives used by Ukrainians to murder their Polish neighbours.

Soon, the first survivors of the pogroms arrive to the village telling the story of Ukrainian neighbours killing Poles and everybody who does not want to participate in killings. The local Ukrainian village administrator arrives at Zosia's home to ensure her that she and her children should stay at home, as they would not be harmed by their Ukrainian neighbours. Also, other Polish people are ensured about their safety. However, these are only deception tactics, to allow Ukrainians to kill as many Poles as possible.

Finally, the killings in the village begin at night. Zosia escapes with her child, but as she is running away, she sees Poles being tortured, including pregnant women being stabbed in womb, human bowels and eyes being taken out alive, people getting crucified alive on their doors and so on. Zosia's stepson is murdered during the massacre. Her stepdaughter, however, is rescued by a Ukrainian peasant. On her way to escape from certain death, Zosia arrives with her child to Petro's previous house, where she is rescued from death at the hands of Ukrainian mob, by Petro's mother.

As Zosia is running away with her child from place to place, she encounters the corpses of mutilated Polish infants, women and elderly in every village. In one place she runs into a unit of the German Army, which saves her from certain death again, just moments before Ukrainians are about to kill her and her child. The Germans are astonished at first as to why she is walking alongside them, but when they find more and more stacks of murdered Poles on their way, they feel sorry for her and escort her to the place where her sister, Helena, lives. She is welcomed there, as Vasyl, Helena's Ukrainian husband, is friendly to Poles. Zosia hides in their shed with her son. As the majority of village's population is already involved in killings, Vasyl's brother tries to convince him to join nationalists and to kill his Polish wife. This way he could save himself and the children. As they wrangle, Vasyl kills his brother with an axe.

The next night, the whole family is attacked by Poles who seek revenge on Ukrainians. They condemn Helena for living with a Ukrainian, slaughter her newborn in front of her eyes, then kill Vasyl and behead her. Zosia observes everything from the shed, terrified. She escapes again, now afraid of both Ukrainians and Poles. She hides in the woods with her son.

• Michalina Łabacz as Zosia Głowacka
• Arkadiusz Jakubik as Maciej Skiba
• Vasyl Vasylyk as Petro
• Izabela Kuna as Głowacka, Zosia's mother
• Adrian Zaremba as Antek Wilk
• Lech Dyblik as Hawryluk
• Jacek Braciak as Głowacki, Zosia's father
• Tomasz Sapryk as Izaak Menzl
• Jarosław Gruda
• Wojciech Zieliński
• Sebastian Stegmann as German
• Andrzej Popiel as Romek Głowacki, Zosia's brother
• Oleksandr Chesherov as Mykola Melenchuk
• Roman Skorovskyi as Stepan Czuma
• Iryna Skladan as Olga Hypyna, Petro's mother
• Aleksandr Zbarazhskiy as Vasyl Huk
• Heorhiy Povokotskyi as miller
• Oles Fedorchenko as Ivan Huk
• Ludmila Goncharova as Petro's sister
• Serhiy Bakhyk as Andriy Kurchuk
• Volodymyr Protsyuk as Orlyk Libera

• 2016: Nomination for the Golden Lions Polish Film Award at the 41st Gdynia Film Festival.[6][7]
• 2016: Best Cinematography Award to Piotr Sobociński at the 41st Gdynia Film Festival[8][9]
• 2016: Best Debut Award to Michalina Łabacz at the 41st Gdynia Film Festival[10]
• 2016: Best Makeup Award to Ewa Drobiec at the 41st Gdynia Film Festival[8][9]

• The figure of officer in the Home Army arriving at the meeting with Ukrainians refers to poet and officer Zygmunt Rumel. Rumel was killed by the UPA, tied to four horses and his body ripped apart.
• The scene of attack on the church refers to events from 11 July 1943 in the village Kisielin[24] (Kisielin massacre) called Bloody Sunday on Volhynia. Similar events take place in the same day in Poryck (Poryck massacre), Chrynów (Chrynów massacre), Krymno and Zabłoćce.
• The scene of blessing of axes and scythes refers to the events from 28 August 1943 in the village Sztuń near Liuboml.[25][26]
• The preaching in the Orthodox church took place on 27 September 1943 in village Iwankowicze.
• Polish reprisal can relate to the Sahryń massacre (10 March 1944) or to the Pawłokoma massacre (3 March 1945). However, in Pawłokoma woman and children were spared.[27]

• Volhynia on IMDb
• Strona Fundacji na Rzecz Filmu Wołyń
• Wołyń w bazie filmpolski.pl
• Volhynian Massacre
• Volhynia (Hatred) by Wojciech Smarzowski—a gripping account of the 1943 massacre