The Times and The Guardian reported that Poles fear "Hollywood has airbrushed out some unpleasant episodes from the story", such as the Bielski partisans' alleged affiliation with those Soviet partisans directed by the NKVD, who committed atrocities against Poles in eastern Poland, including the region where Bielski's unit operated.[14][17][18] Gazeta Wyborcza reported six months before the film's release that "News about a movie glorifying [the Bielskis] have caused an uproar among Polish historians", who referred to the Bielskis as "Jewish-Communist bandits".[19] The newspaper commented that it "departed from the truth on several occasions", including depicting pre-war Nowogrodek as a Belarusian town where "no one speaks Polish", "there are only good Soviet partisans and bad Germans", and "Polish partisans are missing from the film altogether".[20][21] Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz, in an article published in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, criticised the film for vastly simplifying the historical reality and failing to adequately place the events it describes within the complex historical situation of World War II in Eastern Poland.[22]
The wave of criticism against the film has led to charges that the criticism was fuelled by anti-semitism.[23][24] According to The Guardian a "storm of protest" erupted in Poland, that the movie was booed at some cinemas and banned from others due to a "local perception that it is a rewriting of history and anti-Polish".[24] On March 11, 2009, the Polish Embassy in London disputed the report, stating: "This embassy has been in touch with Defiance's only distributor in Poland, Monolith Plus, and we have been told that this film has not experienced any form of booing, let alone been banned by any cinemas."[25]
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trevmon ago
has anyone seen this movie defiance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(2008_film)#Poland
The Times and The Guardian reported that Poles fear "Hollywood has airbrushed out some unpleasant episodes from the story", such as the Bielski partisans' alleged affiliation with those Soviet partisans directed by the NKVD, who committed atrocities against Poles in eastern Poland, including the region where Bielski's unit operated.[14][17][18] Gazeta Wyborcza reported six months before the film's release that "News about a movie glorifying [the Bielskis] have caused an uproar among Polish historians", who referred to the Bielskis as "Jewish-Communist bandits".[19] The newspaper commented that it "departed from the truth on several occasions", including depicting pre-war Nowogrodek as a Belarusian town where "no one speaks Polish", "there are only good Soviet partisans and bad Germans", and "Polish partisans are missing from the film altogether".[20][21] Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz, in an article published in the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, criticised the film for vastly simplifying the historical reality and failing to adequately place the events it describes within the complex historical situation of World War II in Eastern Poland.[22]
The wave of criticism against the film has led to charges that the criticism was fuelled by anti-semitism.[23][24] According to The Guardian a "storm of protest" erupted in Poland, that the movie was booed at some cinemas and banned from others due to a "local perception that it is a rewriting of history and anti-Polish".[24] On March 11, 2009, the Polish Embassy in London disputed the report, stating: "This embassy has been in touch with Defiance's only distributor in Poland, Monolith Plus, and we have been told that this film has not experienced any form of booing, let alone been banned by any cinemas."[25]