JIFF: The Partisan with the Leica Camera

The Story

A frightened look of a woman, from a rare self-portrait of a couple, leads the director to a shocking family story. Hidden secrets are revealed when 65-year-old son, Simon, discovers that his father, the photographer Mundek Lukawiecki, and his mother, the housewife Hannah Bern, were the commanders of a Polish partisan squad that operated during the Holocaust. The unsettling facts are backed by unique photos taken in the forest by Mundek, the partisan, on his Leica camera. 

The Partisan with the Leica Camera features Maurie Hoffman, one of the last surviving members of the squad, and current resident of Melbourne, Australia. 

Link for more information about the history of Partisans here, thanks to The Melbourne Holocaust Museum. 

Rating

E

Duration

Director

Ruth Walk