Among Neighbors

Synopsis

Decades after the Holocaust, American filmmaker Yoav Potash unearths the haunting mysteries of a small Polish town where people of two different faiths lived side by side for centuries.

At its heart, the film focuses on two individuals who lived through the peril of World War II and its aftermath: Yaacov Goldstein, a Holocaust survivor whose harrowing story exposes both the heights of human compassion and the depths of cruelty, and Pelagia Radecka, an eyewitness to when five Jews were murdered, not by the Nazis but by her own Polish neighbors, six months after the end of World War II.

Breaking decades of silence for this film, they share secrets they have held for a lifetime, and their experiences are brought to life in stunning animated sequences, enriched by artful touches of magical realism. Together, their accounts illuminate the darkest chapter of Poland’s history.

As attempts to rewrite this history in favor of a more politically convenient narrative gain momentum, Among Neighbors offers a powerful counterpoint. Revealing a tale of love and murder spanning seven decades, the film boldly asserts that true patriotism lies in facing history honestly, no matter how painful the truths may be.

About the Director

Yoav Potash

Yoav Potash is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He produced and directed the Sundance premiere documentary “Crime After Crime,” a New York Times Critics’ Pick and winner of 25 honors, including a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award, and six audience awards. The documentary had a national primetime broadcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network, then streamed on Netflix for two years and is now available on Amazon Prime. The film helped spark movements to change domestic violence law in multiple US states. Yoav also directed the San Francisco IndieFest Jury Prize-winning documentary Food Stamped, which was nationally broadcast on Pivot, Participant Media’s cable/satellite network. Yoav is an alumnus of UC Berkeley, where he received the university’s top prize in creative writing. He is producing and directing Love, Murder and Miracles as part of a project entitled Untold Stories of the Holocaust, which will also include Diary from the Ashes, his NEH-funded film about the diary of Rywka Lipszyc, an imaginative teenage girl whose handwritten notebook was only discovered in recent years.

Artistic Statement

In 2014, I first set foot in the small Polish town of Gniewoszów, a place that had once been home to about 3,000 Jews. Today it was home to none. Ostensibly, Nazi Germany was solely responsible for the eradication of Jewish life in this quiet rural enclave, just as Hitler and his accomplices were responsible for the death of six million Jews across Europe. But when I interviewed town elders, I uncovered a dark secret – local Poles had murdered the Holocaust survivors who returned to the town, a full six months after the surrender of Nazi Germany. Then, just over three years after I began filming, Poland’s far-right nationalist government passed a law to silence the very kind of testimonies I was recording. This attempt at repression, along with the heartfelt testimonies of eyewitnesses who offered me their life’s final testimony, have motivated me to use animation to help bring the stories of the past to life onscreen, and to commit eight years of my life to making Among Neighbors.

Festivals, Screenings, & Awards

Kennedy Center for Human Rights – Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Best International Film

Religion Communicators Council – Wilbur Award

Heartland International Film Festival

San Francisco Independent Film Festival – Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Warsaw Jewish Film Festival – Special Award

Jewish Film Institute – Envision Award

Berkshire International Film Festival – Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Los Angeles Film Awards – Best Documentary

Austin Jewish Film Festival – Audience Award

Teaneck International Film Festival – Audience Award for Best Documentary, Audience Award for Best of the Fest, Jury Award for Best Documentary

San Diego International Jewish Film Festival – Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature

Jewish Nevada International Film Festival – Audience Award for Best Documentary Film

New Hampshire Jewish Film Festival – Best of Fest Award for Best Documentary Film

Ojai Film Festival – Honorable Mention for Social Impact and Vision and Best Documentary Feature

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

JFI WinterFest