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JULIA PIROTTE - BEAUTY AND STRENGTH

JULIA PIROTTE - PIĘKNO I SIŁA

By Ewa PYTKA

Biography - Post-Production 2025

A fearless Jewish-Polish photojournalist risks everything to document the French Resistance, the Kielce Pogrom, and the fight for peace. Julia Pirotte's lens captured history — her courage, a timeless portrait of resistance, loss, and unbreakable spirit.

- Year of production
- 2025
- Genres
- Biography, Art - Culture, Documentary
- Countries
- POLAND
- Languages
- POLISH, FRENCH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 80 mn
- Director(s)
- Ewa PYTKA
- Writer(s)
- Ewa PYTKA
- Producer(s)
- Ewa PYTKA (PYTHON STUDIOSS LTD)
- Synopsis
- Julia Pirotte – Beauty and Strength
  This biographical documentary tells the untold story of Julia Pirotte — a fearless Polish Jewish photojournalist and Resistance fighter in Marseille during WWII. With a camera as her weapon, she captured the French Resistance, the Liberation of Marseille, the Kielce Pogrom of 1946, and the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wrocław in 1948.
  Her younger sister Maria, also a courier for the Resistance between Paris and Marseille, was arrested by the Gestapo while carrying dispatches for the High Command. Executed by guillotine in Wrocław, she walked to her death crying to fellow prisoners: “Courage!”
  After decades of silence, Julia sent her wartime photographs to France in 1980 and won First Prize at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles (Arles International Photography Festival). There, she met Jeanne Vervoort – Vercheval, Belgian feminist and social activist and Georges Vercheval, founder of the Museum of Photography in Charleroi, entrusting him with her negatives — donating the rest to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
  Filmed across France, Belgium, and Poland the film features rare and previously unseen archival materials, offering an intimate and powerful window into Julia Pirotte’s world and the turbulent history she witnessed through her lens.
  Julia Pirotte – Beauty and Strength uncovers the legacy of a woman erased from official history — yet unwavering in her pursuit of justice, freedom, and dignity. Her life is a moving testament to resistance, memory, and the enduring power of photography.