Agfa 1939 – My Journey Into War

A box full of photos from the Second World War serves as the starting point for a historical thriller. It was found by a Polish filmmaker whose grandfather had served in the German army. But what does it mean for Michal Wnuk’s family history?, It all started with this old Agfa box: 120 pictures and two amateur films from the Second World War. Their discoverer, filmmaker Michal Wnuk, believes he’s seeing the war through his grandfather’s eyes for the first time. Wnuk is Polish – but his grandfather served in the Wehrmacht. The photos show prisoners of war in France and Russia – and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising from a German perspective: Snapshots of war, memories in black and white. Closer examination, however, suggests Wnuk’s grandfather may not have taken the photos at all because he did not serve in those theaters of war. So Michal decides to find out where they came from. He discovers that the box belonged to his great-uncle, who was in the Polish Home Army. How did it get into his hands? Spoils of war? Evidence? The films are also puzzling, showing a trip in the summer of 1939. Who are the people in the pictures? Wnuk’s quest ultimately takes him to Germany. This German-Polish co-production is like a historical thriller, full of riddles and surprising twists.