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Film about Warsaw Uprising in production in Latvia

BC, Riga, 16.05.2014.Print version
Skuba-Films is near completing production of a documentary feature: "Flowers to the Defeated: Remembering the Warsaw Uprising", as Atis Klimovics, one of the film makers, told LETA.

This August, Poland will mark 70 years since the Warsaw Uprising – an operation by the Polish resistance movement "Armia Krajowa" against the Nazi forces that vastly outnumbered the Polish combatants. The film is based on memories relived by four surviving members of "Armia Krajowa". Back in 1944, they were teenagers but nevertheless took active part in the fighting, and were lucky to survive. The film also uses archival footage.

 

Since 1989 when the Communist regime fell, official events take place in Poland annually to commemorate the resistance operation that continued for two months. Commenting on the subject of the film and its importance for Poland and the entire Eastern Europe, Polish Ambassador to Latvia Jerzy Marek Nowakowski notes that the August 1944 uprising in Warsaw is an important part of Polish national legend. While the Polish combatants were fighting Nazi Germany, the uprising was, politically, against the Soviet Union, which is why it is so important for Poland's history.

 

According to the ambassador, the Poles wanted to welcome the Soviet army as masters of their own city. "They wanted to drive the German occupants out, but at the same time say a clear "no" to the idea of making Poland a Soviet country," said Nowakowski. However, the Soviet army halted moving forward and did not come to the Poles' assistance – standing calmly by as they were killed by Nazi troops for two months instead.

 

It is the living memory of the Katyn Massacre and the Warsaw Uprising that helped Poles through the Communist rule, said Nowakowski. The price of the Warsaw Uprising was horrific – 80 percent of the city was destroyed, and 200,000 people lost their lives. Debate still continues in Poland whether the nation should have paid such a price. "The events associated with the Warsaw Uprising still remain a subject that Poles talk about at home and in public debate," added Nowakowski.

 

Journalists Klimovics and Pavels Sirovs are the directors/screenwriters, and the creative team also includes cinematographer Andris Prieditis and film editor Valdis Zelonka. The title of the film is a line from a poem by Latvian poet Peteris Bruveris. The making of the film is supported by the Polish Embassy in Riga, Foreign Ministry, the Warsaw Uprising Museum and Polish State Film Archives.






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