Bereza Kartuzka Wins Film Award

The feature documentary film Bereza Kartuzka produced and directed by Yurij Luhovy has won the WorldFest-Houston International Film Award to be presented at the Gala Remi Awards Dinner in Houston, Texas.  It has been nominated to receive one of the top four awards in the History category. The film, based on eyewitness accounts, tells the story of the infamous Polish concentration camp Bereza Kartuzka between 1934 and 1939.

The 43^rd Annual WorldFest-Houston International film Festival will be held from April 9 to April 18 which includes seminars on various aspects of filmmaking and 56 films from over 30 countries. Almost all films are presented personally by their directors at the festival. Yurij Luhovy will be attending.

Filmmaker Yurij Luhovy, member of The Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television, previously worked on the feature film Ups and Downs and the documentary film Harvest of Despair, both of which also received the WorldFest-Houston Award in 1984 and 1985, respectively.

     Film-critic and Editor-in-Chief of Kino-Theater, Larysa Brioukhovetska, wrote “the 55-minute documentary is experienced in one breath” and Bereza Kartuzka is “dynamically constructed”.

Film's English Version Released

Montreal:   The English-language version of the feature documentary film Bereza Kartuzka by award-winning Montreal filmmaker Yurij Luhovy, has now been completed and released on DVD. Bereza Kartuzka tells the story of the infamous Polish concentration camp in which thousands of Ukrainian patriots were imprisoned between 1934 and 1939. The documentary recalls the political situation in Western Ukraine under Polish occupation between the First and Second World Wars.

The English version is narrated by well-known Canadian filmmaker and writer Paul Almond.  Voice-overs are by Canadian actor Lubomir Mykytiuk of television, film and stage and writer Fran Ponomarenko.

Bereza Kartuzka incorporates rare footage of the actual Bereza Kartuzka compound, unique archival film material and commentaries by prominent historians and academics.  Some camp survivors now live in Canada and the United States.  Along with other former prisoners, they speak out and many tell their story for the first time.

Upon viewing the documentary, Canadian filmmaker Alec MacLeod commented “a remarkably compelling and little-known story about the suffering by Western Ukrainians at the hands of the Poles between the Wars”. Journalist Yaroslav Bihun of Washington, D.C., whose father was taken to Bereza-Kartuzka stated “Bereza is part of Ukrainian, Polish and world history, and should not be ignored or forgotten”.

For further information or to arrange for a film screening, email mmlinc@hotmail.com.  To purchase a DVD of Bereza Kartuzka write to 2330 Ave. Beaconsfield, Montreal, Quebec H4A 2G8, call 514-481-5871 or visit website www.yluhovy.com.