Karski & The Lords of Humanity
with director Slawomir Grünberg
Film Showing and Filmmaker-Author-Critics Special Event
Friday, April 8th, 7.30 PM
Copernicus Theater
5216 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL
Tickets ($10)and Full Information Available at: copernicuscenter.org/karski/
The film showing will be followed by a Panel Discussion with the Filmmaker Slawomir Grünberg, in conversation with author E. Thomas Wood (Jan Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust), and Special Guests: Andrzej Rojek (Jan Karski Educational Foundation), Bożena Nowicka McLees (Polish Studies – Loyola University), and Zbigniew Banaś (Film Critic – Loyola University).
“… a moving look at a Polish resistance fighter”
The Los Angeles Times
“…fascinating…”
The New York Times
“A REAL Super Hero”
The Jewish Journal
Official Theatrical Trailer Heading link
Karski & The Lords of Humanity is a feature-length partially animated documentary project. The film tells the story of a member of the Polish underground who acted as a courier during World War II and whose most prominent mission was to inform the Allied powers of Nazi crimes against the Jews of Europe in an effort to prevent the Holocaust. Jan Karski infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto and a Transit Camp and carried his dreadful eye-witness report of the atrocities to Britain and the United States, hoping that it would shake the conscience of the powerful leaders or – as Karski would call them – the Lords of Humanity.
Our project offers an earnest portrait of an extraordinary individual and a unique perspective on the history of World War II and the Holocaust. It is a story of a man juggled between life and death while fulfilling a desperate mission to stop the annihilation of European Jews. The movie will portray the biggest tragedy of the 20th century as reflected in the life of a single individual.
The tale of Jan Karski’s wartime activities is much more than the story of one man’s adventures. It is a parable of human folly, urgently relevant to the world we inhabit today. His mission was not a failure. The risks Karski took to witness the Final Solution firsthand and the mind-shattering reports he delivered about it forced Allied leaders to confront the horror for the first time. When Karski broke the taboos of his exiled government and began to speak out about the fate of the Jews, he played a major role in shaping public opinion in the free world.
The innovative fusion of technologies employed by our team will create a unique film reality, and will bring Karski’s compelling story to life. The film will employ fiction-like scenes presented by means of animation techniques intertwined with documentary scenes and archival footage, including authentic voice-over by Jan Karski himself. Thanks to the animation techniques, we will be able to recreate the events, which took place during Karski’s World War II mission. We will be able to recreate his treacherous visit to the Warsaw Ghetto, where he witnessed the indignities and traumas to which Jews were being subjected in Nazi-occupied Poland only months preceding the Final Solution. Hours of interviews recorded with Jan Karski after the war will provide the most authentic first person narrative, and will accompany the animated reenactment of events against the background of authentic archival footage.
This film is the newest in the collection Slawomir Grünberg’s films, which explore major themes in the humanities. Many of the previous films were broadcast on PBS, HBO and many international television networks. Among them are: “School Prayer” (Emmy Award Winning), “Shimon’s Returns”,“Castaways”, “Coming out in Poland”, “Portraits of Emotion”, “The Peretzniks”, “Fenceline”, “The Legacy of Jedwabne”, “Saved by Deportation” and the Oscar Nominated “Sister Rose’s Passion”(Directed by Oren Jacoby).
Official Movie Site: