Było sobie miasteczko... (English: There Once Was a Town...) is a 2009 Polish historical documentary film about the 1943 Kisielin massacre in the village of Kisielin (now Kysylyn), located in the Wołyń Voivodeship in Poland before World War II, (now in Ukraine). The film, directed by Tadeusz Arciuch and Maciej Wojciechowski, was produced by Adam Kruk for Telewizja Polska.
Było sobie miasteczko... tells the story of a small town which, until World War II, belonged to the Second Polish Republic Eastern region of Kresy. People of different nationalities used to live there in peace: Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, the Czechs. Kisielin was wealthy and prosperous. There was a publishing house and a library there, an oil pressing factory, and a distillery, a brickyard, as well as a dairy plant. Today, only the ethnic Ukrainian villagers remain. The old ruins of a Polish Catholic church serve as witness to the tragedy that took place there during the massacres of Poles in Volhynia. On 11 July 1943, a group of Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered the 60 to 90 Polish worshipers inside the Kisielin temple, and set it on fire. The rest of the Polish inhabitants escaped from Kisielin, never to return.
The narrators of the film belong to the same Polish family of Dębski originally from Kisielin. Among them: Krzesimir Dębski, his mother Aniela, brother Wisław, son Radzimir, and niece Ulesława Lubek. Also, some ethnic Ukrainians make appearances – all present day Kisielin inhabitants – of whom the majority still remembers those events. A title of the film is taken from the monograph about Kisielin and its inhabitants, written by a deceased father of Krzesimir Dębski, Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski.
The musical setting for the film constitutes the work of the mentioned Krzesimir Dębski (now a classical composer), inspired by his own borderland memories, especially the excerpts of his Oratorio to the End of Kresy, composed in commemoration of the victims of Polish genocide in Wołyń. The world premiere of his work was held on 17 September 2008, at the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. The film is not only a story about the murdered Poles of Kisielin. It is also a reflection on the eradication of Polish culture and tradition in the entire region, and the painful legacy that lingers.
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