AFTERMATH

After a 20-year absence Franek returns to his Polish village to visit his younger brother Józef. He finds an atmosphere of hostility has grown up towards Józef, who has discovered that gravestones from the local Jewish cemetery were used to build roads during World War II. In his film with the trappings of a thriller Władysław Pasikowski follows a trail of culpability that extends into the director’s own family history. AFTERMATH alludes to the Polish massacre of Jewish citizens in Jedwabne in 1941, which was documented by the historian Tomasz Gross in his book Neighbors. In Poland the film provoked a scandal and heated debates.