Andrzej Wajda - Korczak (1990) :: top Movie Channel

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Polish National Film Archive wrote:

Henryk Goldszmit – aka, Janusz Korczak – was born in 1878 to a prosperous, assimilated Jewish family in Warsaw. Convinced from an early age that the rights of children needed defending, he studied pediatrics and organized a number of institutions for children, including a famous orphanage that he was forced to move into the Jewish ghetto after the Nazis invaded Poland. Yet he remained convinced that even the Nazis would not harm his children. Wajda’s moving, wrenching and highly controversial portrait of Korczak ponders the fate of a kind of modern saint in a world in which evil has become the rule. Brilliantly incarnated by Wojciech Pszoniak from a script by Agnieszka Holland, Korczak both fascinates and repulses. The man’s complete, unquestionable dedication to his children is set against a refusal to understand – or perhaps accept – the reality all around him. A thoughtful, provocative work that was clearly a key influence on Schindler’s List.

Andrzej Wajda wrote:

I think that I committed to Dr. Korczak all of my talents and skills, although the shooting of the film coincided with the 1989 election, which for me involved almost daily presence in the Senate.

The official screening at Cannes during the 1990 festival, followed by the standing ovation in the Festival Palace was, regrettably, the last success of Dr. Korczak.

By the next morning, the review in "Le Monde" had transformed me into an anti-Semite, and none of the major film distributors would agree to circulate the film outside Poland.

My good intentions were useless.