Lake 68

In 1967 and 1968, Poland was gripped by a deep political crisis and student unrest. Coming on the heels of Israel’s Six Day War, the government’s response was to launch a wave of official anti-Zionism, accusing Jewish students, academics and professionals of harboring divided loyalties. By spring of 1968, some 20,000 Jews—nearly 80 percent of the Jewish population at the time, most of them assimilated Polish citizens—were drummed from their jobs and universities and expelled to Israel or beyond. Some left without looking back; but others stayed, like filmmaker Irit Shangar’s father, a journalist for communist newspapers, who rejected exile in Israel despite separation from his wife and children. Now, each summer, several Polish Jewish families reunite at the lake where they took refuge in 1968 while waiting for exit permits. Shangar has created that rare documentary that is both intellectually thought provoking and visually breathtaking.