Filmmaker to Present Documentary, "The Officer's Wife"

BUFFALO, NY − Canisius University will present a screening of the Polish documentary film “The Officer’s Wife” on Sunday, April 29 at 4:00 p.m. at the Market Arcade Theater on Main Street in Buffalo. The film, directed and produced by Piotr Uzarowicz, is in English. Following the documentary screening, Uzarowicz will be available to take questions from the audience.

In 1940, the Soviet Secret Police murdered thousands of Polish military officers and secretly buried them in mass graves deep in the Russian forests. To this day, Russia has yet to atone for this horrific crime. Upon the death of his father, Uzarowicz made a startling discovery. A forgotten safe deposit box revealed his grandmother’s memoirs, which included a mysterious postcard that was a link to the 1940 Katyn Forest Massacre. His grandfather was among the officers murdered. In addition, his grandfather’s wife and children were among one million Polish citizens of various faiths and ethnicities from Eastern Poland who, in 1940-1941, were killed, repressed or deported to prisons, forced labor camps, and “special settlements” in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Soviet Asia. 

Filmed in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, England, Canada and the United States, “The Officer’s Wife” is one man’s family story fused with the personal stories of survivors and interviews with the children who managed to survive Siberia, but tragically lost their fathers at Katyn. 

Tickets are $10 and are available at the door or by contacting Mary Lou Wyrobek at (716) 888-5970 or via email at @email. The event is co-sponsored by The Permanent Chair of Polish Culture at Canisius University and the Polish Legacy Project WWII.

Canisius University is one of 28 Catholic, Jesuit colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.