Korczak (DVD), Kino Lorber, Drama

Wojtech Pszoniak stars in Andrzej Wajda's biographical paean to renowned humanitarian Henryk Goldzmit, who wrote under the name Janusz Korczak. The film opens in the late 1930s with pediatrician, writer, teacher, and radio personality Korczak working as the administrator of an orphanage in the slums of Warsaw. When the Nazis invade Poland, move Korczak and his Jewish charges into the ghetto, and begin shipping cattle cars full of adult Jews to Treblinka, the doctor does everything in his power to try to protect the children from the uglier aspects of the ominous quarantine. Friends and well-wishers urge Korczak to leave the children to their fate and save himself, but the dedicated doctor adamantly refuses, demonstrating a dedication to the children that knows no bounds. Pszoniak is superb in this affecting portrait, which is austerely photographed in black and white by the gifted German cinematographer Robby Müller.