Wojciech Smarzowski: photo - wikipedia
“I want this film to build a bridge, and not a wall,” Smarzowski told the TVP Kultura channel.
“But it will be brutal,” he acknowledged.
Over 60,000 ethnic Poles are believed to have been slaughtered from 1943 to 1944 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a guerrilla force that sought Ukrainian independence.
The killings began in the Nazi German occupied region of Volhynia, which had lain within Polish borders prior to World War II.
Smarzowski has said that the film will not present a “black and white” version of history, noting that he will show how Polish guerrillas massacred Ukrainians in “retaliatory” killings.
Poland's underground Home Army (AK) coordinated the counter-attacks on ethnic Ukrainian villages, and 2000-3000 Ukrainians were killed in Volhynia, and then about 20,000 more when the fighting spread to other areas of south east Poland.
Smarzowski's film is based on the 2006 book Hatred (Nienawisc), a collection of tales by author Stanislaw Srokowski.
The movie's plot focuses on Zosia (played by newcomer Michalina Labadz), a young Polish woman who wants to marry a Ukrainian against her father's wishes.
Scenes representing rural Volhynia will largely be shot at the Open-Air Village Museum in Lublin, south east Poland.
The director has said that the civil war in Syria makes the film “absolutely current”, arguing that the film needs to be made “so as stop more tragedies like this happening.”
Smarzowski is regarded as one of Poland's foremost directors. He made his feature film debut with 2004's Wedding, and he has shown a commitment to thorny Polish themes.
The budget of his current film is his largest to date, 15 million zloty (3.5 million euros), and the premiere is scheduled for the spring of 2016. (nh)