Among Neighbors

Among Neighbors

Combining evocative hand-drawn animation with revelatory interviews and verité footage, “Among Neighbors” examines Jewish Polish relations through the story of Gniewoszów, a small, rural town where Jews and Polish Catholics lived side by side for centuries. At its core, the film zeroes in on the last living Holocaust survivor from the town, and an aging eyewitness who saw Jews murdered there – not by Nazis, but by her own Polish neighbors.

Today, all signs of Jewish life in the small town of Gniewoszów have vanished – even the Jewish tombstones disappeared, having been stolen from the destroyed cemetery. Now, a lifetime after the Holocaust, award-winning American filmmaker Yoav Potash (“Crime After Crime”, Sundance Film Festival) unearths the deepest mysteries of this town, revealing both the love and the hatred that local poles felt for their Jewish neighbors. The town’s oldest residents, the in the twilight of their days, divulge secrets held their entire lives, and their stories came to life in stunning animated scenes, accented by artful touches of magical realism.

Conversation with Director Yoav Potash following the screening.