Sky Line Logo
Sky Line
Back to Movie Details

Cinematic Feed

Gravity-Stabilized Stream

Establishing Link

Note: These servers may trigger pop-ups. If redirected, simply close the new tab and return here.

Watching: The Story of Seven-Hundred Polish Children

0.01967-01-0118 min

Overview

This 1967 documentary tells the story of 734 Polish children who were adopted by New Zealand in 1944 as WWII refugees. Moving interviews, filmed 20 years later, document their harrowing exodus from Poland: via Siberian labour camps, malnutrition and death, to being greeted by PM Peter Fraser on arrival in NZ. From traumatic beginnings the film chronicles new lives (as builders, doctors, educators, and mothers) and ends with a family beach picnic. Made for television, this was one of the last productions directed by pioneering woman filmmaker Kathleen O'Brien.