Świadectwo urodzenia (Birth Certificate), dir. S. Różewicz, 1961

Three novellas, three cities, five child protagonists, and the trauma of war as seen through their eyes. A boy lost in the turmoil of September 1939, three brothers striving to preserve the memory of their father who has been taken prisoner by the Germans, and a young Jewish girl hiding in an orphanage, painfully experiencing the brutality of Nazi racial theories.

The film garnered awards at the international youth film festivals in Cannes and Venice.

Tickets – 5 PLN, 15 PLN combined ticket.

Rites of Passage. A review of films about coming of age.

The films included in this selection seem at first glance to have nothing in common: their subject matter, genre, country and date of production all differ. Yet all address the issue of maturing, as related to the embracement of one’s Jewish identity – maturing with history in the background, in both the individual and the collective dimension, freely or by force.

The review accompanies the seminar Do we mature and when? in the Believe in the Museum? series.

Within the framework of the cycle we will show:

November 13, 7 pm – Lebanon, dir. Samuel Maoz, 2009

November 20, 7 pm – Sanatorium pod klepsydrą (Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass), dir. Wojciech Has, 1973

November 27, 7 pm – A Serious Man, dir. Ethan and Joel Coen, 2009

Supported by Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland