33 Photos from the Ghetto

This documentary focuses on the discovery of rare photographs taken inside the Warsaw Ghetto during the April 1943 uprising and the subsequent brutal crackdown. These images, which are the only known non-Nazi records of the event, were captured in secret by Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski, a twenty-three-year-old member of the Warsaw Fire Service. Decades later, the photographer's son found the forgotten negatives, leading to an investigation involving two families, one of whom is Jewish. A team of animators, archivists, and researchers worked to reconstruct the original contexts and locations to uncover the lives and circumstances depicted in the frames.

The film was directed by Jan Czarlewski, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Carlotta Verny. Produced in Poland by TVN Warner Bros. Discovery, MWM media, and Instytut Kultury Miejskiej w Gdańsku, the production features a cast of 24 credited individuals. The main cast includes Maciej Grzywaczewski, Romana Laks Kaplan, Dorota Pawlak, Michael Berenbaum, Jerzy Gutkowski, and Agnieszka Kajczyk, all appearing as themselves. Released on April 15, 2025, the work blends historical research with personal testimony to provide a civilian perspective on a dark period of the Second World War.