Shtetl

With his friend Nathan, the film director, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust, retraces the steps of Nathan's family, originally from Bransk, a small Polish town. They meet Zbyszek Romaniuk, a young Pole who is passionately interested in local history and to whom Nathan has been writing for some time. By examining places and questioning witnesses, all three of them attempt to rediscover the marks left by Bransk's Jewish past. The shtetl disappeared when 2,500 Jews were deported to Treblinka... Later, Zbyszek travels to the United States, where he is welcomed by Jewish families from Bransk. But when his research takes him to Israel, he comes up against some young students who reproach him for Polish antisemitism. Conversely, on his return to Poland, he is criticized and threatened because of the interest he has shown for Bransk's Jewish history. Appointed deputy mayor of the small town, he finally omits mentioning this side of the past.