Ghetto callled Baluty

In the same apartments and houses, on those streets where many years ago Jews fought to survive each moment now live new inhabitants. Before World War Two, Baluty was a feared thieves’ neighbourhood. Immediately after the occupation of Poland, the Nazis established here a Jewish ghetto, where 200.000 Jews were to wait for their death. From autumn of 1941, Jews from five Czech transports where added as well. The way of life of the new residents of the contemporary quarter of workmen and the poor of the industrial city of Lodz is marked by poverty, alcoholism and unemployment. Baluty of the past and the present have a lot in common. The pictures of different times of the same place connect the reports of the former and contemporary inhabitants and the unique photographs by Henryk Ross from the past. The film director Pavel Štingl and the cameraman Míra Janek met on their common journey to Lodz with the photographer Karel Cudlín. This man created during the shooting a collection of pictures, which now form a supporting exposition. The introduction of the documentary together with the exhibition create a unique project, in which Cudlín’s contemporary photographs hold a mirror against Henryk Ross’ original war-photographs, which were used in the film.