Overcoming Fate - film screening

Christchurch Heritage Festival Event - Registration recommended

The story of WW2 deportees, the Polish Pahiatua Children, from Poland through Siberia and Persia to NZ. In Polish with English subtitles. Christchurch Heritage Festival 2020.

"Overcoming Fate" (Wygrać z przeznaczeniem) is a 2015 Polish artistic documentary film from award-winning director Marek Lechowicz. It tells the story of Polish WW2 deportees to Siberia and Kazakhstan, many of them orphaned children. Offered temporary shelter in Persia in 1942 following the amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union, in 1944 they were invited by Rt Hon Peter Fraser to enjoy a safe haven in New Zealand until the end of the war. Many remained here for life and came to be known as the “Polish Pahiatua Children”.

This hauntingly creative film uses archival footage and contemporary material filmed in New Zealand (interviews with survivors) and in Poland (reenactments) for a deeply moving experience. Its artistic quality is enhanced by the elegiac use of the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert set to the animations of Zdzisław Beksiński’s paintings, and the musical score from Robert Chojnacki.

COVID19 - the event will proceed in Level 1 and Level 2 (but the number of seats may be limited and priority given in the order of registration). In Level 3 or 4 the event will be cancelled.