"Spring 1941" first Polish-Israeli co-production

Director Uri Barbash and actors Joseph Fiennes, Neve McIntosh and Mirosław Baka took part in a news conference on the occasion of the pre-premiere of Polish-Israeli film Spring 1941.

“Spring 1941 is not a film about the Holocaust,” Barbash said. “This is a story about love, family, loyalty and betrayal, which takes place during the Holocaust.”

For Fiennes, who is starring in the film, the characters’ lots are “a history from horror, describing situations that no one would ever dream of today.” Neve McIntosh, Kelly Harrison, Clare Higgins and Sinead Matthews had roles in the film together with Polish actors including Mirosław Baka, Maria Pakulnis and Łukasz Simlat.

Spring 1941 is based on a story by Ida Fink, a Polish Jewess who escaped the Holocaust. She has been living in Israel since 1957 and writes only in Polish. The film is about a Jewish married couple hiding together with their daughter during the German occupation at a farm belonging to a Polish widow. It is a story about hopeless and possessive love facing omnipresent fear, threats and death.

The film was produced with financial support from the Polish Film Institute and the Israeli National Film Institute. The producer is Opus Film/Praxis Films.

Spring 1941 will be screened in cinemas in Poland in March 2009.

Translated by Monika Miziniak | Edited by Patricia Koza