It's a wrap: filming of Holocaust epic finishes in Lublin
Filming of Irena’s Vow, an international production telling the story of Irena Gut, a Polish nurse who hid twelve Jews right under the nose of a Wehrmacht officer, has wrapped up in Lublin.
The Canadian-American-Polish production features an impressive cast that includes Dougray Scott, whose previous roles include an appearance in Mission: Impossible 2, acclaimed Polish thespian Andrzej Seweryn, and Canadian actress Sophie Nelisee, who plays the title role of Irena.
Born into a Catholic family in Kozienice, eastern Poland, in 1922, Gut took up studies at a nursing school before the invasion of Poland in 1939.
When the war broke out, she joined a resistance unit and was later taken into Russian captivity. Raped and left to die, she escaped only to be rearrested by the Germans during a roundup.
In 1942, Gut witnessed a Nazi officer throw a baby in the air and shoot him, a traumatic event that would change her life; motivated also by her faith, the event left her determined to do everything in her power to save others from Nazi brutality.
Although the Gestapo forced her and others to watch the public hanging of a Jewish couple and their Polish protector, Gut went on to risk her own life to save Jews bound for certain death.
This she did in the most daring of way, hiding Jews in the cellar of a villa occupied by Major Edward Rugemer.
While working as a forced labourer in a munitions factory, Gut caught the attention of the Major and he subsequently found her an easier job in the kitchen of a hotel frequented by German officers.
Located close to the walls of the Tarnopol Ghetto, each night Gut would smuggle leftover food through the barbed wire, going undetected for several months. Read More…
