I just watched an amazing Yurij Luhovy documentary called Bereza Kartuzka. The documentary is produced in English and Ukrainian. I watched the English version.
For anyone interested in understanding the tensions between Poles and Ukrainians during World War II, this documentary gives context. Bereza Kartuzka was a Polish concentration camp in which thousands of Ukrainian patriots were incarcerated between 1934 and 1939. Luhovy’s father was one of those prisoners.
When Western Ukraine was handed over to Poland in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, Ukrainians were promised freedom of religion, language and culture, but the Polish government wanted to Polonize Ukrainians and so they instituted a program called "pacification" — meaning Ukrainians who clung to their own language and culture were brutally punished. Thousands were shipped to the concentration camp known as Bereza Kartuzka, where they were beaten and forced to work 14 hour days, often without shoes or proper clothing. They were made to sleep in their own filth and were given starvation rations. Their days were so regimented that even defecating was done on command.
Luhovy was able to film interviews with former inmates who told of their own horrible treatment in graphic detail. He was also able to get to the site of the concentration camp itself and film the grounds. His footage was almost confiscated at the Belarus-Poland border.
Bereza Kartuzka just won The Remi Award at the 43rd Annual International Film Festival in Houston, Texas. Well deserved.
The documentary can be obtained through Luhovy’s website: www.yluhovy.com
I also found the film interesting. I watched it at a festival in august in Lviv, a Ukrainian town, and it was a surprise for me, that there were less than ten people watching it.