Abstract

After 1989, a new trend in historical films appeared in Polish cinema, with a settlement character. The female perspective interested, among others, Wojciech Smarzowski, the creator of such period pieces as Rose (2011) and Volhynia (2016). In the first film, the director refers to the tragic history of Masuria, while Volhynia deals with a complicated Polish-Ukrainian relationship. For Smarzowski, the story of a man, an individual thrown into the vortex of war, becomes the core of the films discussed in this article. Using the example of the title character Rose and Zosia Głowacka from Volhynia, the director focuses on the hardships of femininity and motherhood during the geopolitical turmoil. This time, it is not the well-known heroes who constitute the plot axis but the “nameless” women who have been called upon by history after more than half a century.