Film about Sendler premiers in Poland

KD, 16 November 2016
“The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler”, a film by John Kent Harrison which tells the story of Irena Sendler’s rescue action during which she saved children from the Warsaw ghetto, will be released in Poland on September 18th, 2009. The main character in this 2009 American production is played by Anna Paquin, one of the youngest Oscar winners in the history of film. There are Polish actors among the cast as well, for example Danuta Stenka, Maja Ostaszewska and Krzysztof Pieczyński. The music was composed by Jan A. P. Kaczmarek, awarded by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005.


The screenplay was written by Harrison on the basis of Anna Mieszkowska’s book, “Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story”. The book and the movie try to answer the question how a young Polish woman was able to contribute to rescuing so many people and to find a shelter for children in Polish families’ houses, in orphanages and in convents. The movie shows Sendler’s close relationship with the Church and her cooperation with Council to Aid Jews, also known under its codename “Żegota”. When she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and sentenced to death, “Żegota” paid a big ransom and the sentence was executed only “on paper”.

“It was late when the world heard about her – says Krystyna Budnicka from Association of Children of the Holocaust in Poland for Wiadomości24. – Too late to appreciate her and to consider a proposition of awarding her with the Nobel Peace Prize. Modest, smiling, she always emphasized that she would not be able to rescue anyone just by herself.”