I know I’m supposed to keep myself at a comfortable journalistic remove, but this remastered footage of the Warsaw Uprising is simply astonishing.
Titled Warsaw Rising, the film shows the crews that the Polish resistance Home Army sent fanning through the city to chronicle the uprising.
The only purely fictional elements are voiceovers presenting an imagined narrative that stitches together the footage: Two brothers scour the streets of the Polish city tasked with filming the 1944 rebellion of Warsaw residents against their Nazi occupiers, commenting on what they witness, from soup kitchens to scenes of destruction.
Cinematographers hired by the Warsaw Rising Museum added colouration and sound that give a real-life feel, while modern editing techniques provide a polished, fast-paced narrative.
The museum released the trailer of the film last month as part of the observances of the anniversary of the launch of the doomed struggle.
The film will be released in cinemas – in Poland and abroad – next year, before the uprising’s 70th anniversary.
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