On October 15, 2011, the students of the senior classes, together with their teachers and guardians, attended the screening of the film “An Officer’s Wife”, directed by Piotr Uzarowicz. The film is a poignant, life-written story about a family tragedy discovered years later. After the death of his father – young Peter, the director of the film, discovers traces of a family tragedy from World War II stored in a hiding place. These include diaries, old photographs depicting a Polish army officer and a mysterious postcard that once belonged to Cecilia’s grandmother, her father’s mother. All of these elements come together to form a trail leading to one of the greatest crimes of World War II-the Katyn forest crime committed by the Soviets against Polish army officers in April 1940. The national trauma took on a very personal dimension in the film. The director’s grandfather, a Polish army officer, was killed in Katyn, and grandmother Cecylia, the officer’s eponymous wife, was exiled with her two young children to distant Siberia. Fighting a battle for the lives of her children in inhumane conditions, Cecilia tries to find even the slightest trace of her husband, at least one piece of information about him. All she can count on is uncertainty, fear and a spiral of lies… After 70 years, the story of Cecilia and thousands of other Poles – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters who lost their beloved husbands, sons, fathers and brothers in Katyn is told by Piotr Uzarowicz. It is a first-person narrative, told through the mouth of Cecilia, who faced the cruel truth and lived hiding a terrible secret.
During the screening of the film, the director-Piotr Uzarovich-was present in the hall to answer questions from the audience-pupils of Polish schools who came to the screening. The film was very well received, young viewers were moved by the story told. Many questions were raised and many reflections on family histories. There was also a lot of excitement, as it turned out that many Polish families settled in Chicago, keep a lot of family heirlooms and stories about the confusing and tragic fate of their members during World War II.

Anna Rosa