Polański, Horowitz. Hometown Picture: Robert Słuszniak, KRK Film
Memories both welcome and traumatic are at the moving and involving heart of the new documentary Polański, Horowitz. Hometown, which charts the emotional reaction of award-winning filmmaker Roman Polański and his friend, world-famous photographer Ryszard Horowitz, as they return to walk the streets that they knew so well as children.
As they wander around the cobbled streets of beautiful Polish city of Krakow, following the footsteps of their wartime experiences, they recall happy memories of childhood and also delve into moments of wartime horror. With umbrellas in hand, they stroll the streets of Kazimierz and the former ghetto, visit the homes where they spent their boyhood, remember those who are no longer there and also those who survived the Holocaust.
Co-directors Mateusz Kudła and Anna Kokoszka-Romer have crafted a gently perceptive film that subtly examines the different characteristics of two very different men, allowing space and time for introspection alongside gentle humour, all the time balancing memory with perspective. Roman Polański is, of course, a polarising figure, but this film is a compassionate exploration of a very specific time in history and these two thoughtful men offer a personal and emotional take on being a Jewish child during World War II in Poland.
The structure is straightforward. The two men meet in Krakow and are filmed walking the streets, recalling moments from their childhood; visiting old homes; strolling through graveyards and synagogues (Polański admits to disliking both types of places) and pondering the past. As they wander into an old classic city centre cinema Polański says: “I think the first movie I ever saw was Sweethearts (a musical with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy)…an idiotic musical comedy.” Horowitz takes photographs of his old friend, though admits to struggling with the old-fashioned camera.
Both men offer recollections and thoughts about the other. Polański says of Horowitz: “He is often very touching and talented…very well mannered…unlike me,” while Horowitz dwells on Polański’s sense of loss for his much-loved mother, who died in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
They have mixed feelings about modern-day Krakow. As the two men have to avoid a city tour buggy, Polański observes how, ”it is beautiful here…but it has nothing. It is so similar to Disneyland.” But at the same, time their association with the place runs deep and as they visit the streets that Polański saw bricked up to create the city’s ghetto it is clear that their affection for the city of their childhood still remains.
Horowitz’s family left Krakow shortly before the Nazis arrived, but he was later sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau with his older sister Bronisława “Niusia” Horowitz-Karakulska (who also features briefly in the film), though both survived thanks to German factory owner Oskar Schindler, whose story was made famous by Steven Spielberg in the Academy Award-winning film Schindler’s List.
Polański, on the other hand, was in the Krakow ghetto when Jews were taken to camps, and watched his father taken away aged six. He ended up roaming the countryside and being cared for by various families.
The documentary closes with footage from the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem where the title of “Righteous Among the Nations” was awarded to the Buchala family who hid Polański – who speaks emotionally about them – in a village near Wadowice during the war.
Both men have clearly been reluctant to talk too much about the past. Horowitz is uncomfortable when Polański asks him to reveal his concentration camp tattoo, and there is a lingering sense of internal conflict when memories are recalled – the past is not something that either want to dwell on. Nevertheless the film draws tender moments of sad insight alongside recollections of fun and joy, and it is this balance that helps make it a gently insightful experience.
Poland-France-USA, 2021, 75mins
Dirs/scr Mateusz Kudła, Anna Kokoszka-Romer
Production KRK FILM
Prod Mateusz Kudła, Anna Kokoszka-Romer
Cinematography Lukasz Herod, Yori Fabian, Grzegorz Glupczyk, Krzystof Sowizral
Editors Mateusz Kudła, Anna Kokoszka-Romer
Music Jerzy Petersburski, Leopold Rosner, Herman Rosner, Krzysztof Komeda, Leszek Możdżer
With Roman Polanski, Ryszard Horowitz, Bronislawa Horowitz-Karakulska
