Opening October 10 at the Quad Cinema, Yoav Potash’s new documentary unfolds like a mystery — revealing not only what happened in post–World War II Poland, but why silence lasted so long.
Every so often a documentary surfaces that reminds us what cinema can do — not just record history, but excavate it. At 8 Above we are excited to be releasing Yoav Potash’s new film, Among Neighbors (opening October 10 at the Quad Cinema in New York City). It is one of those rare works that turns remembrance into revelation.
It’s a film that begins quietly — with a filmmaker paying respect to the dead — and evolves into a cinematic investigation that asks what happens when silence lasts for generations.
In late 2014, Potash traveled to the small Polish town of Gniewoszów for the rededication of a Jewish cemetery. He hadn’t planned to make a film. But while walking through the remnants of this once-vibrant shtetl, curiosity took hold. He began talking to the few remaining elders, asking what they remembered about their Jewish neighbors — the bakers, tailors, and shopkeepers who had lived among them for centuries.
What he found was a story that began as nostalgia and ended as confession. What started as an act of remembrance became an unexpected investigation — one that pulled him into a moral and emotional mystery still echoing today.
A Story Buried Beneath the Ashes
Through these conversations, Potash uncovered memories that had been locked away for decades. At first, the stories were warm, even affectionate — children playing together in shared courtyards, the closeness of a small-town life. But as the interviews deepened, a darker truth began to emerge. After the Nazis were defeated and the war officially over, some of the Jews who returned to Gniewoszów were killed — not by German soldiers, but by their own neighbors.
Those who saw what happened were threatened into silence. For generations, they lived with the weight of that fear, whispering the truth only to themselves. Potash’s camera arrived at the edge of that silence, and somehow, it broke. What followed were testimonies unlike anything previously recorded — not in archives or textbooks, but spoken directly, for the first time, by those who had carried these memories all their lives.
A Murder Mystery of Memory
What makes Among Neighbors truly singular is the way it unfolds. Rather than presenting a conventional historical narrative, Potash structures the film like a murder mystery told through living memory. Each interview is a clue, each contradiction a thread to pull. The rhythm of revelation builds slowly, and the tension comes not from dramatic music or editing tricks, but from the courage it takes for someone to finally say what they’ve never said before.
At the film’s emotional core is Pelagia Radecka, who was 85 when Potash first interviewed her. She speaks with the weight of someone who has spent a lifetime holding her breath. Her recollections are both intimate and haunting — part history, part confession. But what gives Pelagia’s story its depth is not just what she reveals about the past, but what she longs for in the present. She speaks of her childhood friend, Janek Weinberg, the boy who survived when his parents did not. Her search for him — for connection, forgiveness, understanding — drives the film forward. It’s a thread that binds personal memory to historical reckoning.
And as the story nears its conclusion, there’s a moment of discovery — quiet, emotional, and deeply human.
The Craft of Confrontation
While the film incorporates hand-drawn animation to bring fragments of memory to life, its true artistry lies in the editing and restraint. Potash gives each witness the space to find their voice, allowing emotion to surface naturally. The pacing is deliberate — each pause, each trembling silence, each fleeting smile becomes part of the storytelling. The film’s rhythm mirrors the process of remembering itself: hesitant, halting, and ultimately transformative.
The context makes the act of filmmaking even more urgent.
In 2018, Poland passed a law making it a crime to publicly suggest Polish complicity in the Holocaust. That legislation turned Potash’s project from an exploration of the past into a defense of truth in the present. What began as a local story became a universal one — about the danger of erasure, the fragility of testimony, and the moral courage it takes to remember.
Bearing Witness
At its heart, Among Neighbors is about the cost of silence and the redemption that comes from breaking it. The villagers’ decision to speak, and Potash’s decision to listen. Together they remind us that truth is not an abstract idea — it’s a living, breathing responsibility.
What the Critics Are Saying
Critics have recognized both the emotional gravity and the artistic precision of Potash’s work.
“Beautifully crafted with moving interviews from the older generations and their younger families… Potash’s film should stand as a vital document in the history of Gniewoszów.” — Film Threat
“Among Neighbors examines what happened in a small Polish village… It’s about owning up to our history, good and bad.” — NPR / KCLU
https://jonreiss.substack.com/p/bearing-witness-among-neighbors-and