Unearthed

by Ania Szczepanska, 63’, 2025

Logline

In 1967, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, an archaeological excavation near Crematoria II and III was filmed by director Andrzej Brzozowski. In this 14-minute film, Polish archaeologists unearth 16,470 objects that belonged to victims, most of them Jewish, murdered in the gas chambers. This was the only excavation ever carried out in this area. Nearly 50 years later, Ania Szczepanska sets out to trace the thousands of objects discovered beneath the ground.

Synopsis

In 1967, Polish filmmaker Andrzej Brzozowski made a striking short film in the area of Crematoria II and III at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He filmed archaeologists excavating thousands of objects that had belonged to victims, most of them Jewish, murdered in the gas chambers. These 14 minutes soon faded into obscurity, and the objects disappeared.

Fifty years later, Ania Szczepanska rediscovers the film and embarks on a moving quest: how was this film made in communist Poland? Who was the archaeologist behind the excavation? And what became of these 16,470 fragments of humanity? As her investigation unfolds, she uncovers buried memories, meets those who made the discovery possible, and explores little-known archives.

Through Brzozowski’s early films, the work of this remarkable figure in Polish cinema comes back into view, revealing other works: fiction films, documentaries, newsreels, as well as amateur films made in the 1950s and 1960s, and scientific short films with a haunting aesthetic, close to experimental cinema. Cinema and history meet and respond to one another in this film, where questions of memory are embodied through film itself.

A question emerges from this story: what do we do today with this fragile memory, with these silent traces passed down to us by history? A little-known chapter of Polish history comes to light — and with it, our responsibility to keep it alive.