Wolyn (2016)
Genre: Drama / War
Duration: 150 minuten
Alternative titles: Hatred / Wołyń
Country:
Poland
Directed by: Wojciech Smarzowski
Stars: Arkadiusz Jakubik and Vasyl Vasylyk
IMDb score:
7,5 (7.710)
Releasedate: 7 October 2016
Wolyn plot
"Murder of the Innocent"
Despite the fact that she is in love with a Ukrainian boy from the same village, the Polish girl Zosia is forced into marriage with the wealthy widower Maciej. Shortly afterwards, the Second World War begins and ethnic tensions arise. Amid the chaos, Zosia struggles to survive with her husband and child.
Actors and actresses
Zosia Głowacka
Maciej Skiba
Antek Wilk
Hawryluk
Głowacki
Głowacka
Romek Głowacki
Izaak Menzl
Niemiec
Reviews & comments
wibro
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- 11590 messages
- 4098 votes
Yes, this really leaves you speechless for a moment. Until recently, I had never heard anything about the atrocities committed by the Ukrainians against the Polish minority during the Second World War, but judging by what I’ve read about the history, it seems to be true. Well, the Germans did nothing about it, and neither did the Russians. Both, by the way, hated the Poles. So they thought: not our problem, so let’s not get involved. Consequently, the Ukrainians could just go about their business. Besides the massacres shown, this film also clearly demonstrated that the Soviet NKVD was no less brutal than the Nazi German SS. Both pillars of those pernicious regimes made short work of their perceived opponents. The Poles were therefore simply unlucky to be sandwiched between these pernicious regimes. That Poland lost 6 million of its people during the Second World War is therefore easy to imagine and certainly not an exaggeration.
The question remains for me whether this Polish war film didn't go too far in depicting the massacres, where the word massacre was taken very literally. Bodies torn apart, severed body parts, children set on fire, etc. Too gruesome to mention. In any case, it makes this film the most gruesome war film I have ever seen. Idi i Smotri (1985) pales in comparison.
4.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
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- 10276 messages
- 4809 votes
You cannot help but watch with utter horror this sad spectacle regarding the mass murders of Poles in the Volhynia province (which was Polish territory in what is now Ukraine), where tensions between Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles reached a boiling point just before the Second World War. The film begins with a wedding between a Polish peasant daughter and a Ukrainian. During the wedding celebration, some ominous nationalist echoes already resound from Ukrainians who want to be rid of their Polish "oppressors" and intend to do so in a radical way. The Orthodox Church also played along.
Shortly thereafter follows the film Zofia, the beautiful blonde sister of the bride, who is forced by her father to marry a much older man, while she is in love with a boy from her village. From then on, she transforms from a cheerful girl into an unhappy, melancholic woman due to all the misery she experiences. It is not a film that will make you happy, to use a standard Moviemeter saying, but it conveys the threat of death well, as well as the total chaos that reigned in the countryside. The province was truly overrun by everyone. The massacres by the Ukrainian nationalists are devastating and worthy of a horror film. It is a sad chapter of a people who have known far too much misery in their past.
A negative point is the somewhat shoddy editing: you will notice that it contains many very short scenes, ranging from a few seconds to half a minute. Not really conducive to the film experience; nevertheless, this remains a very strong war drama.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Theunissen
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- 12337 messages
- 5538 votes
I saw this Drama / War film pop up on "MovieMeter" last week in the "ALL THE LATEST FILM NEWS" section and it seemed like something for me. Although the runtime of 143 minutes might be a bit on the long side and the opening at a wedding (where you do get to see the small breasts of the beautiful lead actress Michalina Labacz) is a bit of a slog, it gets progressively better and increasingly intense after about 25 minutes when the Second World War breaks out in Poland.
The Germans were quite capable of atrocities, but the Ukrainians weren't exactly sweethearts either with their medieval horrors (beheading, skinning living people, setting children on fire, tearing bodies apart using horses, etc.) against the Polish people, and these atrocities are particularly visible in the last approximately 40 minutes of the film and are very intense to watch.
Aside from the fact that the film is perhaps a bit too long, there are also many strange transitions between scenes, including many short scenes, which prevents the story from flowing entirely smoothly. The cast did quite well, and lead actress Michalina Labacz, in particular, impressed me as a young Polish woman. The film shows, primarily from her perspective, how ordinary people become entangled in increasingly escalating violence.
"Wolyn" is an impressive and gripping historical film about the ethnic conflicts and atrocities in Volhynia during World War II. The film is harsh and at times very confronting, but precisely because of this, the historical reality hits hard. The visuals are realistic and the atmosphere is oppressive. The story makes clear how hatred, nationalism, and revenge can lead to terrible events.
All in all, "Wolyn" is a heavy film to watch, but at the same time an important and very well-made historical production.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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