Vol. 23 · No. 3 · Issue 76 · Fall 2005

Joanna K. Stimmel

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Abstract

This article focuses on two "Holocaust" films made in Germany and Poland in the 1980s and 1990s (Bittere Ernte and Fotoamator), and also looks briefly at the more recent The Pianist. Bittere Ernte (Angry Harvest)6 was directed by Agnieszka Holland, a renowned Polish émigré filmmaker, but was made by a German production company, with German funds and for German audiences, given the language of the film, the choice of actors, and the place of its initial release. The film was selected as the West German contender for the 1986 Academy Awards in the category "Best Foreign Film." The second film, the documentary Fotoamator (Photographer), was released in 1998 in Poland. Directed by the first-time Polish filmmaker Dariusz Jablonski, and shot predominantly in Polish (although German and Yiddish are also spoken), the film was financed in large part by German sources, presented in Germany in a German version, and received numerous German film and television awards for excellence.