Edge of Light (PL / EN)
28.06.2023 - 20.00 / High Synagogue, ul. Józefa 38, Kraków (basement hall)dir. Wojciech Szumowski, Poland, 2021, 73’
Part of “The Space of an Image. A Series of Films on Jewish Themes”
This movie presents the story of Dariusz Popiela, a Polish athlete who refuses to let the Nazis’ goal of erasing Jews from history come to fruition. Together with a group of similarly-minded young people, he leads restoration projects in old, forgotten Jewish cemeteries. By recovering old matzevot, Popiela brings back the memory of victims of the Shoah. Each name recovered from the stones helps to show victims as individual people instead of a nameless group. THE FILM IS A STORY ABOUT READING – from matzevot, documents, the memories of neighbors – the history of Poland before and during WWII. Young people from Krościenko, Grybów, Czarny Dunajec and many other places in Poland shed the light of memory on the names of individual people.
Dariusz Popiela is an athlete who represented Poland in slalom canoeing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a two-time European champion and multiple world championship medalist. He is also a man who refuses to allow the Nazi dream of erasing Jews from history to happen and leads projects dedicated to restoring old, forgotten Jewish cemeteries. A charismatic man who electrifies the people around him and invites them to join him in reading forgotten, local history.
Partner: Warsaw Jewish Film Festival, Camera of David Foundation, Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation
