Czech Film Center

Synopsis

The very same flats and houses, the very same streets where many years ago Jews spent every moment fighting for survival, are inhabited by new residents today. Before World War II, Baluty was a feared crime-ridden neighborhood. Immediately after occupying Poland, the Nazis established a Jewish ghetto here, which housed 200,000 Jews waiting for their death. After the autumn of 1941, they were joined by Jews from five Czech transports. Life in the poor, working-class district of the industrial town of Lodz is marked by poverty, alcohol and unemployment. Baluty then and Baluty now have much in common. Images from the past and present of this stigmatised place are brought together by interviews with former and current inhabitants of the area and reporter Henryk Ross’s unique photographs from the distant past. On his way to Lodz, director Pavel Štingl ran into photographer Karel Cudlín, whose photographs made during the shooting are presented at the accompanying exhibition. By screening the film together with the exhibition, we have created a unique project in which Cudlín’s contemporary photographs hold up a mirror to Ross’s wartime images used in the film.