BEST DOCUMENTARY - Los Angeles Film Awards | SPECIAL AWARD - Warsaw Jewish Film Festival | ENVISION AWARD - Jewish Film Institute | Winner of five film festival audience awards | “REMARKABLE... an absorbing true crime movie.” – San Francisco Chronicle
History • World War II • Holocaust • Jewish • Poland • Censorship • Survival • War • Genocide • Animation • Europe
Date of Completion: 2024 | Run Time: 100 minutes | Languages: English and Polish with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript & Discussion Guide | Producer, Writer & Director: Yoav Potash | Executive Producer: Anita Friedman | Associate Producer: Aaron Tartakovsky | Editors: Lauren Schwartzman, Yoav Potash & Aaron I. Butler, ACE
Combining magical realism with traditional documentary techniques, Among Neighbors examines the mystery of a small, rural town where people of two different faiths lived side by side for centuries –– until the killing began. The film reveals both love and betrayal as it zeroes in on a crime committed among neighbors: the murder of Holocaust survivors in Poland, six months after the end of World War II.
At its heart, the film focuses on two individuals who lived through the peril of the war and its aftermath: Yaacov Goldstein, a Holocaust survivor whose harrowing story exposes both the heights of human compassion and the depths of cruelty, and Pelagia Radecka, an eyewitness to when five Jews were murdered, not by the Nazis but by her own Polish neighbors.
Breaking decades of silence for this film, they share secrets they have held for a lifetime, and their experiences are brought to life in stunning animated sequences, enriched by artful touches of magical realism. Together, their accounts illuminate the darkest chapter of Poland’s history. In fact, the chilling revelations of this documentary have led the office of Poland’s nationalist president to call for a ban on the film.
Columbia University | Annette Insdorf, Professor of Film & Author of Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust
“This film utilizes animation on a level that is on a level that is not literal, but to turn the fact-based story into something poetic. We are led to experience the relationship between Polish Catholics and Polish Jews, and also the thorny issue of Polish antisemitism that is part of the fabric of this investigative and revelatory film.”
The Hollywood Reporter | Steven Zeitchik, Senior Editor, Technology and Politics
“STIRRING… The animation holds its own with the likes of modern documentary classics such as Waltz with Bashir.”
CNN | Jake Tapper, Lead Washington Anchor
“Among Neighbors is relevant to the efforts by some in this country to pretend that slavery didn’t happen in the United States. It’s a weak country that cannot acknowledge its shameful chapters.”
San Francisco Chronicle | G. Allen Johnson, Staff Writer
“REMARKABLE... at times more like an absorbing true crime movie.”
This Week in New York | Mark Rifkin, Writer & Editor
“Ten years in the making, the film is A GRIPPING, DEEPLY EMOTIONAL MURDER MYSTERY.”
Jewish Journal | Ayala Or-El, Journalist
“A POWERFUL FUSION OF ANIMATION AND TESTIMONY, where art and memory intertwine. Through this MASTERFUL blend of visual storytelling and firsthand accounts, ‘Among Neighbors’ transcends traditional documentary form, becoming part magical realism, part investigative reporting and part historical reckoning. At its heart lies a chilling truth.”
The Jewish News of Northern California | Sue Fishkoff, Editor Emerita, J-Weekly
“Potash weaves a POWERFUL and, at times, BEAUTIFUL tale of human suffering, longing and resilience… illustrated in this film by gorgeous hand-drawn animation created by two international teams. That creative flourish lifts the tale from straight documentary into the realm of magic realism, evoking a lost world with beautiful delicacy.”
AWARDS
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature | San Francisco IndieFest
Special Award | Warsaw Jewish Film Festival
Envision Award | Jewish Film Institute
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature | Berkshire International Film Festival
Best Documentary | Los Angeles Film Awards
Audience Award for Best Documentary | Teaneck International Film Festival
Audience Award for Best of the Fest | Teaneck International Film Festival
Jury Award for Best Documentary | Teaneck International Film Festival
Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Feature | Ojai Film Festival
Honorable Mention for Social Impact and Vision | Ojai Film Festival
Official Selection | Heartland International Film Festival
Audience Choice Award | Austin Jewish Film Festival
Official Selection | Santa Barbara International Film Festival
FESTIVALS
JFI WinterFest (Opening Night)