Where was the Pianist filmed
Where was the Pianist filmed

ROMAN POLANSKI: A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR

The future iconic director came into the light of the world, driven by national tension, the aftermath of a devastating economic crisis and doubts about collective security, and the failed chance to ‘end all wars’, after the greatest of all. The peasants of Ukraine, metamorphosed into ‘war communism’, collectivization, and now exposed to a mastered man-made famine, were gathering ‘The harvest of sorrow’ (as it would be named by a historian Robert Conquest years later) with up to 4 million dead and 500 000 of unborn population. In Italy, the authority of ‘Casa Savoia’ (the royal dynasty of Savoy) was practically narrowed to a national symbol and a banquet host, all while the actual power over a state was put in the hands of charismatic fascist leader Benito Mussolini. In Germany, the seven-month reign of Chancellor Adolf Hitler brought the dissolution of the Reichstag, the so-called ‘Law for the Protection of People and State’, the establishment of the Dachau concentration camp, the first boycotts of the Jewish business, the formation of the Gestapo, the infamous book burnings and the ban of any other political party except for the Nazi. 

Raymond Polanski made his first breath on August 18, 1933, in Paris, France. His father Ryszard, a Polish Jew latterly changed his last name from Liebling to Polanski and his mother Bula already had a child from the first marriage, a girl named Annette. The born boy, a child in common, tightened the wedlock. The son Roman (Polish-style) was named Raymond after the manner of the French language and the Polanski family would spend the first three years of his life in Paris. Never fully assimilated in a strange land, the father of a family (Ryszard) took his family to Krakow, his native town, and a residence of relatives and friends. Back in 1936, the decision (that would hold far-reaching consequences) sounded safe. Despite the mass emigration of the German Jews leaving the Third Reich and the evident red flags of the upcoming World War, Poland, and Germany had ink on a non-aggression pact, theoretically valid until 1944. 

Roman Polanski as a holocaut survivor
Two surviving photos of a young Roman Polanski

For the first little while, Raymond had no more progress in assimilation in Krakow, than his father had previously experienced in Paris. The young Polanski stood out from the crowd of Polish boys with his foreign accent, brittle body, and his blonde shoulder-long hair. As soon as the outbreak of the war in September 1939, Ryszard did not let the grass grow under his feet and moved his family to Warsaw, a city distanced more from the border with the aggressor. Having looked enough at the horrors of the air raids, the Polanski family made their way back to Krakow, initially to a grandmother’s flat in the historically Jewish district of Kazimierz and later on, by a force decree, within the borders of the Krakow ghetto. The Polanski family were agnostics, yet under the same rule and humiliation obligations to wear a yellow armband with a ‘Star of David’. Sixty years later, the director would share his own story of making these bands with some failed attempts. Another reality of the ghetto, that Polanski would interpret in his ‘The Pianist’, is the erection of the wall. A need to feel freedom and not be bound by limitations would become Roman’s breath of life. In a purely artful sense, the future director would use to trick his audience with space and walls within the frames of his works. 

Raymond (Roman) Polanski and 'The Pianist' movie
Raymond (Roman) Polanski after the War

In the teeth of temporal return to school and generally ‘normal’, yet constrained existence, Roman was now an eyewitness of a man-made dehumanization of the Jewish population at the hands of the occupational forces. The brick wall and physical separation from Krakow, the obligatory wearing of the armbands, a puppet-kind administration by ‘Judenrat’: all these were dramatically accompanied by acts of material humiliation. As a vivid example, the scene with Wladyslaw’s father and a German officer, who slapped the face of an elderly man, came from the memory of Polanski himself. In pretty the same way as the Jewish boys in the movie, young Roman did find a breach in a wall to conduct short-long, yet full of fear, outings beyond the ghetto.

As early as 1942 his father Ryszard managed to arrange shelter for his son in the home of the WILK family. Young Roman would spend the days of the first mass round-up and mass deportations of the Krakow Jews to the Belzec death camp in June 1942. Roman’s mother was tragically among the victims of that mass action and years after the way it would be too painful for him to admit her death. Apart from the mass deportations of June 1942, the young Polanski would witness and wonderfully evade another one. The Polish man, assigned to deportations, led two boys (Roman and his friend) to go back home to take food. A moment after they rushed from the spot, he murmured ‘Don’t run’. This painful childhood memory would be later reflected in a movie adaptation of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s story

Roman Polanski and Adrian Browdey
Roman Polanski and Adrian Browdey on the set in Warsaw

As late as March 1943 the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto (depicted in the iconic ‘Schindler’s List’) put another painful seal on the childhood of Roman Polanski. His father Ryszard assisted his son in breaking out of the ghetto and later on, when the boy noticed his father within a column of rounded people, Ryszard would shout ‘Get out of here’, thus saving Roman’s life. Ryszard Polanski survived the war, yet they would hardly ever discuss the war experience and the faith of the mother. To that moment in time, Roman lived under the last name of Wilk and even had a chance to watch public movies, yet the repertoire in the occupied Krakow had been reduced to German propaganda-like footage. Once changed the patronage of another Polish family, Roman found himself in a rural area far from the city, being the fourth child of the Buchala family. As the war moved to an end, the young Polanski recognized the importance of coming back to Krakow, the city of his childhood and his tragedy. 

Roman Polanski and the Warsaw ghetto
Roman Polanski amid the set of the Ghetto liquidation scene, Mala Street in Warsaw

 

WHERE IT WAS FILMED: THE PIANIST FILMING LOCATIONS

In the late 1990s, the world celebrated the ‘golden’ anniversary of the end of the Second World War, yet Roman Polanski, a prominent director, had not cinematographed a movie, which may be proudly inscribed within his gravestone. The master of play used to find a little enthusiasm in shooting a story on the Holocaust, only Szpilman’s story embodied Polanski’s own survival experience as an artist in the thick of war. In wider means, the director took advantage of the adaptation to gain a cinematic resource for sharing his emotional upheaval at best he could. It also became an emotional challenge for the filming crew and for the leading man (Adrien Brody as Wladyslaw Szpilman) to work with a man, who had experienced roughly the same survival story years before most of them were born. Among other matters, Polanski had no necessity to come to the streets of Krakow (the main reason, why he had previously diverged from directing ‘Schindler’s List’, a story about the Krakow ghetto). One of the formative ideas of a new production initially was to make the most of the exterior Warsaw locations, where was The pianist filmed

Where was the pianist filmed
Polanski, Browdey, and a resident of Mala Street during the filming process

Wladyslaw Szpilman parted from life on July 6, 2000, literally at the height of the production process, passing half a year shy of the start of shooting. The prominent Polish composer and pianist were impressed with the scale of cinematic production with his own story at the heart of all. The joint Polish-British-French-American-German production amalgamated the efforts of hundreds of experts and actors. The shooting was planned to be held both in Poland and Germany and was fated to be appreciated as one of the most ambitious motion picture works in Europe. The actual shooting broke in Germany on February 19, 2001, within the pavilions of the world-known ‘Babelsberg studio’ in Potsdam, the centuries-old residence of the Prussian monarchy. The place is widely known as a consequence of the July 1945 conference between the Allies. The studio sets included almost every interior scene of the movie with the erection of a whole city district on top of that. Looking further forward, Szpilman’s ‘scenes from the windows’ of the second half of the story were mostly recreated far from Warsaw, on the set in Potsdam. 

At the time, when the Potsdam plains resounded the blizzards of the tank and machine guns on the Babelsberg open-air set, Allan Starski, the chief stage designer, used to manage almost an everyday trip from Berlin to Warsaw. Hereaway, Starski (whose father once worked with Szpilman after the war) supervised the makeover of some of the Warsawian locations. Some scenes were to be shot within the historical center, as well as in Kobylka, a suburb of Warsaw and the sadly remembered (due to the Warsaw Uprising massacre) Wola district. ‘Akademia Obrony Narodowej’ (National Defence University) within a distant Rembertow district (separate city until 1957) was to be staged as the ‘Umschlagplatz’. For all that, the PRAGA-POLNOC quarter anticipated the most ambitious makeover after weeks of shaping the image of the Warsaw ghetto. The scenery and prop department fulfilled the competitive task of creating hundreds of details of the war-time Warsaw, including street nameplates, wooden banisters, street lamp posts, elements for the interior scenes, costumes for actors, and hundreds of extras, even replica advertisement banners. The design department examined close to any accessible archive footage and photos of the Warsaw ghetto and closely cooperated with the ‘Jewish Historical Institute’. The major shooting in Babelsberg studio was finalized as early as March 25 and the next four days witnessed a competitive migration of men and equipment. The primary work in Warsaw would take another eleven weeks until the very June 2001

 

CAPRI CAFE (SASKI HOTEL)

Despite the conventional belief, far from every building in the historical center of Warsaw was devastated in 1945 and a part of the pre-war architecture was later repaired and renovated. The modern PLAC BANKOWY, to the West of ‘Ogrod Saski’ (The Saxon garden), could be regarded as one of the ‘housing survivors’. In contrast to the general desolation of the surrounding area, the surviving triangular open space included: 1) The building of the Bank of Poland and the Stock Exchange; 2) The Treasury Ministry palace; 3) The Ministry of Industry and Trade 4) The former Kossecka tenement house. It was this, the fourth, one in the southern part of the square and facing the modern Elektoralna, to be chosen as one of  The Pianist filming locations. To be perfectly blunt, the architecturally sophisticated building of two-centuries history was praised only for the interior scenes, depicting the ‘CAPRI’ cafe, a workplace for Wladyslaw Szpilman unto to the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto. 

'The Pianist' movie scene. CAPRI cafe the pianist location
The overall view of the location as it was depicted in ‘The Pianist’ movie

The decorated restaurant location occupies the frame sweetly, emphasizing the hands of the prominent pianist, who masterfully conducts the ‘Steinway & Sons’ piano keys. Wladyslaw makes eye-contact overtures to a young woman and later fulfills the caprice of some wealthy clients. In a scene, when his sister delivers the dismaying news, one could notice a banner with two men’s profiles and names: ‘Wladyslaw Szpilman / Andrzej Goldfeber’. The interior of the staged location, created under the careful supervision of Allan Starski, the set designer immortalized by his work on ‘Schindler’s List’, is unevidently full of such tiny historical details, rendering the associates with the occupied Warsaw. Szpilman would later come to find shelter inside the cafe at the height of the deportations to Treblinka and soon after the loss of the whole family. All while the movie takes the ‘CAPRI’ title, in fact the place refers to the image of the ‘SZTUKA’ cafe, the actual work seat of Wladyslaw Szpilman. It’s important to note, that the factual place was once located close to the filming site, across the spacious square on Leszno Street, and played a significant part in Szpilman’s memories. 

Wladyslaw Szpilman. Capri cafe as the Sztuka cafe. the pianist film locations
Wladyslaw Szpilman’s sister Halina comes to the cafe to talk to her brother about Henryk
Wladek at the restaurant
Wladek at the restaurant playing the piano

Back in the spring of 2001, the filming crew had little difficulty coming to terms with the owners of the building at Plac Bankowy 1 to turn the first floor into a cafe dating back to the days of the Warsaw ghetto. The thing was, that at that moment (at the turn of the century) the fate of the two-centuries building was up in the air. Back in the 1820s, the whole surrounding area witnessed marked changes with the erection of a triangular square in the place of the previous Baroque palace. The governmental buildings were accompanied by a residential house, built for Barbara Kossecks and later named (the common practice) after the landowner. The building was slightly damaged during the first years of the war but would be burned out during the Warsaw uprising in August 1944.

As the wooden beams (abutment of the floors) collapsed, no more than brick walls witnessed the end of the War. The renovation was put into operation soon after (in 1947) and finished in 1950, reshaping the former residential house into ‘Saski Hotel’ (Saxon hotel, thus referring, as the neighborhood park, to the Saxon kings of Poland). Toward the end of the XX century, the hotel was already in a semi-emergency state and closed down to be later (1997) sold to an Austrian estate company. It is worth noting, that Allan Starski, a man who put his mastery into designing the scenes of ‘The Pianist’, would be (in 2004) hired as an architect to repair the estate. The renovation process would last another eight years and cost 25 million Polish zlotych to turn the building into an office estate. 

 Saski Hotel at Plac Bankowy 1
A modern look of the Saski Hotel at Plac Bankowy 1

WLADEK AND DOROTA (KOZIA STREET)

The cozy promenade-kind ‘Kozia’ street was another location within the city center of Warsaw, to be chosen as the location, where ‘The Pianist’ movie was filmed. The passage between Senatorska and Krakowskie Przedmieście played the background for Wladyslaw and Dorota’s walking within the first weeks of the German occupation. The design department did not switch street nameplates as Kozia Street is not so different from its pre-war appearance. Their way to a desired cup of coffee is to be headed off with the humiliating ‘Zydom wstep wzbroniony’ (No entrance for Jews) sign. Dorota is Polish and she is filled with indignation toward such a policy. The couple takes a minute at the cross of Kozia and Krakowskie Przedmieście and the horse-drawn cars in the background foster an illusion of the Warsaw of 1939. We could identify the green colors of the ‘Adam Mickiewicz’ square behind Dorota. 

WLADEK AND DOROTA (KOZIA STREET)
Wladek and Dorota on their walk across occupied Warsaw
Wladyslaw and Dorota walk Kozia street in Warsaw
We can see the Kozia Street sign in the background

KOZIA Street not only survived the devastations of the Second World War, but its history dates back more than six centuries. As time went on towards the XVIII century, the place was put up with buildings we could still see today. At one period of time, the very district on the outskirts of the palace (to the West) was known for its brothels. As early as the mid-XIX century, the reputation of Kozia Street improved to a degree becoming one of the all-time favorite places to have coffee in Warsaw. Speaking about the particular erections, the noticeable arch over the street (Wladyslaw and Dorota walk under it) was built as a part of the ‘Hotel de Saxe’ (another reference to the Saxon Kings), the largest one in Warsaw in the middle of XIX century.

The cafe, which was renamed (in the movie) to ‘PARADISO’ in a scene, actually known as ‘Telimenta’, is located within a residential house of 1836. It is of interest to note, that its foregoer, the ‘Brzezinska’ cafe (the name originated from the Polish word ‘brzoza’, which means ‘birch’ and would later be notoriously known because of the Brzezinka village and thus ‘Birkenau’ extermination camp) was one of the favorite leisure sites of Frederic Chopin. During its multi-century history, the street had switched several titles, from ‘Kozla’ to ‘Kozlow’ and to Junkierska (named after the neighboring school of military junkers) until 1919 and the attainment of the modern one. The area was badly damaged during the Second World War, but the majority of the building along Kozia was repaired, including the statue of Adam Mickiewicz in a park nearby. 

Kozia street in Warsaw
A unique pre-war photograph of the narrow Kozia Street
Where was the pianist movie filmed
I was pleased to find no tourists during my visit here in the early hours
Ulica Krakowskie Przedmieście -  Ulica Kozia 1960е
The corner of Krakowskie Przedmieście and Kozia Sreet in the 1960s
The corner of Kozia Street and Krakowskiego Predmescie Pianist filming locations
The corner of Kozia Street and Krakowskiego Predmescie and the cafe next to which Dorota and Wlaked stopped

 

GERMAN SOLDIERS (KRAKOWSKIEGO PRZEDMIEŚCIE)

Apart from the remarkable scene at Kozia Street in the heart of Warsaw, the Krakowskie Przedmieście obtained another cinematic incarnation. Immediately following the news that Great Britain and France declared war against Germany, the Szpilman family is happy enough to satisfy a tableful until the next scene reveals the contrasting reality. Poland is now occupied and the German soldiers deliver the military march across the streets of Warsaw, a scene witnessed by Wladyslaw, his father, and brother Henryk. The experienced viewer should not be confused with the semi-devastated appearance of the buildings as these shots have proceeded to special effects. Along with that, the actual location of the scene is easy to be identified. 

KRAKOWSKIEGO PRZEDMIEŚCIE The pianist locations
I made several marks for a better insight into the area and filming locations
  • We see the German soldiers, marching beside the body of a horse (faked) and a building with an imposing entrance and a balcony. The very place is ‘The Secretariat of the Institute of European Studies’, put into a scene from the perspective of ‘Palac Staszica’
The Secretariat of the Institute of European Studies Warsaw
A building of the modern Secretariat of the Institute of European Studies Warsaw
The occupation of Warsaw. The pianist movie scene
When I was a kid this scene with the onset of occupation impressed me
Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of the Interior building in 1934
  • The camera focuses on Wladek, Henryk, and the father. We could easily recognize the statue of Nicolaus Copernicus in front of the same ‘Palac Staszica’. The background includes the semi-damaged (with the help of the post-computer work) building of ‘Mieszkanie Wokulskiego’. 

Mieszkanie Wokulskiego The pianist movie locations

  • The next shot was taken from the perspective of the entrance to ‘Kościół Świętego Krzyża’ (The Holy Cross Church) and its famous statue of Christ and the stairs. The very statue of Copernicus is visible in the background. 

‘Kościół Świętego Krzyża’ (The Holy Cross Church)

Monument to Nicolaus Copernicus and ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 1920к
A monument to Nicolaus Copernicus and Krakowskie Przedmieście in the 1920s

PRAGA-POLNOC AND STALOWA STREET

In parallel with the building-up of the large-scale sceneries at the ‘Babelsberg studio’ in Potsdam and a quest to find the ‘appropriate’ ruins for the final scenes (Szpilman finds himself within the devastated ghetto. The former military barracks were granted for cinematic use before the complete demolition), one of the Warsaw districts was to be makeover into a Warsaw ghetto of the 1940s. The written records on Praga-Polnoc as a settlement date back to the XV century. Five hundred years and some wars later, the now-rejoined district of Warsaw would be slightly damaged during the Second World War. Within the first weeks of the war (September 1939), the area witnessed the battle for the city with little to no destruction. In the months, that followed, every part of Warsaw on the Eastern bank of the Vistula River, was even envisaged as an area for the Jewish ghetto (as we all know, was evaded from such fate).

Amid the ‘Warsaw Uprising’ (August 1944) the streets of Praga witnessed some local fights, but the cut-off insurgents were soon forced to evade the direct collisions. The coming of the Soviet troops and occupation of the district generally preserved it from devastation. It should be stated, that no less than 150 000 people among 180 000 the ones, who remained in Warsaw (who had not been previously killed or deported) welcomed the end of the war within the Praga district. For once being the center of post-war Warsaw, the old area would be later withdrawn to the shadows along with the restoration of the historical center of the city on the opposite bank of the Vistula River. 

PRAGA-POLNOC during the Second World War
A rare post-war photograph of the damaged weapons in the Prage-Polnoc area

Praga-Polnoc area still includes the major share of the preserved pre-war buildings and STALOWA street was once destined to be transformed behind the cameras of ‘The Pianist’ movie. The main and the longest street of the district gained its nomination from the Polish word ‘stal’ (steel) as far back in history as 1891. The steel factories (‘Stalowni Praskiej’ in particular) on this bank of Vistula used to be among the suppliers for the well-known Trans-Siberian Railway. The area came into focus in the 1880s with the erection of a great share of the urban development, which we can still appreciate today. The year 1894 witnessed the first horse-drawn tram as the electrified version some decades later. Stalowa Street was historically appreciated as the heart of the area and a desirable place of residence for the workers and the initial one-story erections were steadily replaced with residential houses, as well as pavement originating from the first years of the XX century. 

Stalowa street Warsaw
I hope this scheme will help you to navigate across the scenes more clearly

 

SCENE 1. One of the scenes is brought in from the corners of the memory of Roman Polanski himself. Wladyslaw’s father is slapped by a young German officer and forced to drop off the pavement into the mud. The scene was shot beside Stalowa 10 and 12, the street plates of which could be easily recognized. We should also pay attention to the Warsaw tram, which fills the scene with the additional historical dimensions of the era. The filming crew obtained four disused but live trams from the local tram depot. Its appearance was as authentic as possible, and the production design department did not need to ‘put years’ on the transport set to fit the 1940s. 

Wladek's father
A frustrating scene of Dladek’s father being humiliated by German officers at least twice younger
Stalowa street as 'The Pianist' movie location in Warsaw
This is the same location as in the previous shot from the movie, just with another color of stucco
The Father of Wladyslaw Szpilman is being slapped on the street
Mr. Szpilman is forced to leave the pavement after being slapped on the street of his home city
Stalowa 10-12
The same building, take notice of the front side details, Stalowe 10-12

 

SCENE 2. October 31, 1940. The dramatic perspective of the scene is filled with the Wobegon columns of the Jewish residents of Warsaw, who conduct their doomed cortege, similar to the well-known scene from “Schindler’s List’. The Szpilman family is a part of this procession and Wladyslaw makes a few steps closer to his friend Dorota, who is frustrated to see all these. The production design crew filled the transformed area with the designed nameplates and commercial banners, ‘LEKI ZIOŁA KOSMETYKI’ for example. 

The Warsaw jews on the street
An obvious cinematic reference to ‘Schindler’s List’
Stalowa street Praga Polnoc. Where was 'The Pianist' movie filmed
Stalowa Street in Praga Polnoc where the previous scene was filmed
The forming of the Warsaw ghetto
The art department did a titanic job of converting modern Warsaw into a 1940 state
The corner of Stalowa and Konopacka Street
The intersection of Stalowa and Konopacka Street
Civilians in an improvised market on the streets of the Warsaw ghetto
Civilians in an improvised market on the streets of the Warsaw ghetto. Warning posters have been posted in several places on the street.

SCENE 3. Another page of the dark history was recreated with photographic accuracy based on the preserved pictures of the Warsaw ghetto. The factual corner of Chlodna and Zelazna streets (within the actual ghetto) was built (by the Germans) with the so-called ‘gates’, a transition from one part of the ghetto (known as ‘large ghetto) and the other one (known as ‘small ghetto’). We could see Wladyslaw and Henryk waiting for the lineup to cross the gates. The cinematic version was recreated on the corner of Stalowa and Konopacka streets in Praga. One would notice a replica of the ghetto wall, lined aside Konopacka. The tram line (as it is today) goes along Stalowa Street. The building behind the gate was accompanied by the ‘BARDLA WSZYSTKICH’ (Bar for everyone) sign.

The gates of the Warsaw ghetto: Pianist movie
The gates of the Warsaw ghetto were filmed at the intersection between Stalowa and Konopacka
Pianist filming sites in Warsaw
The same building less than two decades later

 

SCENE 4. The sadly remembered overhead passage across the Chlodna street, widely known as ‘The Bridge of Sights’ was recreated at the very Stalowa Street, at arm’s end from the crossroad of Stalowa and Konopacka and the ‘gates’ as well. The built-up wooden erection reflected the historical transfer between two parts of the Warsaw ghetto, the 52 stairs which (on each side) once opened the panorama over the street between the ‘small’ and ‘big’ ghettos. The wooden bridge is depicted in some scenes in the movie. Henryk Szpilman collapses from exhaustion and later Wladyslaw meets his friend and gets acquainted with Majorek on the same bridge. In another memorable shot, the story gives us a glimpse of the German filming crew, capturing the daily life of the Warsaw ghetto. Roman Polanski once emphasized that he was once absorbed with the image of such cameramen, almost routinely doing his job as well as the other Germans.  

The bridge of sights as it depicted in a movie. Warsaw ghetto
A recreation of the notorious ‘Bridge of Sights’
Where was the pianist movies filmed
Take a closer look at the two buildings in the background and match them with a shot from the movie
The brdge of sights. THe pianist movie
Another cinematic angle to look at the ‘Bridge of Sights’ in ‘The Pianist’ movie
The Warsaw ghetto bridge
The footbridge connecting the ‘Small Ghetto’ to the ‘Large Ghetto’ with Chłodna Street

SCENE 5. On the day of his escapade from the working camp, Wladyslaw makes his way to the given address and meets people, who assist him in accommodating ‘the Aryan’ side of Warsaw. Two men use the horse-drawn carriage to get to a temporary refugee. The former prominent pianist would have to spend a night in a concealed back room with legs tucked. On the morning of the next day, Wladyslaw played the role of a ‘free and easy’ Polish man, taking a tram. The scene was filmed at Stalowa 11

Wladyslaw Szpilman and his shelter in Warsaw
This scene was once again filmed in the Prague-Polnoc district on Stalowa Street
Stalowa 11 as the movie location
One of Wladek’s hiding places as it was depicted in the movie
Stalowa Praga Polnoc
Once again, pay attention to the details of historical accuracy
Jews ride in a streetcar marked with a Jewish star in Warsaw
Jews ride in a streetcar marked with a Jewish star in the Warsaw ghetto

 

MALA STREET

At the times, when Stalowa Street had already secured its place in the city plan of Warsaw, an unused plot of land to the South was still in the ownership of a local landlord. Soon after executing the agreement on cession, and the rights to a city, this blind spot of the Praga area was destined to become a street. The real estate development of the place, initiated in 1880 was all but immediate and would last for another thirty years. Within this interval of time, this cozy narrow street with the self-explanatory name ‘MALA’ (Small) was built in two, three, and later four-story residential buildings. The surrounding area was scarcely damaged in the years of the Second World War and the authentic historical appearance has been preserved in the production of ‘The Pianist’ movie. Admittedly, some buildings have been restored for the mere of the last two decades. Back in the time of the shooting, the filming crew was concerned with two major issues. On the one hand, they self-restricted themselves to the necessity not to produce inconveniences for the locals, with the erection of the replica ghetto wall within a narrow street in particular. On the other hand, Polanski would later acknowledge, that the neighborhood was inhabited by ‘hard-boiled’ people, which, indeed, made a little problem to the production, except for a couple of drunk men. 

Mala Street Praha district Warsaw
I have dreamed of visiting this particular location since my first watching of the movie in 2002

 

SCENE 1. The first sequences to be shot were focused on the scenes with the ghetto wall. We could see Wladyslaw walking along the wall and trying to save a little Jewish boy, beaten to death for his smuggling activity. 

Wladyslaw walking along the ghetto wall
Wladyslaw Szpilman walks next to the ghetto wall, in fact alongside Mala Street
Wladek walks beside the Warsaw ghetto wall
Pay attention to the building in the far background
Mala Street Warsaw The pianist
The same building. The total length of Mala Street is less than 300 meters

 

SCENE 2. In another memorable, yet sadly remembered scene, the protagonist Szpilman makes his way back to the ghetto soon after evading the fate of being deported to Treblinka. He is crying and completely devastated while walking across the left belongings. This perspective was shot near 10-12 Mala Street in the direction of the corner with Konopacka. Building number 10 is the one with the open window shutters in the movie. Speaking of the changes, a spot of land covers the place of the wooden erection from the scene. 

The pianist movie. The liquidation of the ghetto
One of the most emotional scenes in World cinema: Wladyslav gets back to the liquidated ghetto

 

SCENE 3. Several scenes depict the forced workers, and rare survivors during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, including Wladyslaw Szpilman. The movie reflects wooden gates (a means for the workers to be taken outside) and a section of the wall. These scenes were staged at the crossroad with another pocket-size street called Zaokopowa (behind the trench). The actual empty spot of land between buildings 8 and 10 was post-processed to add ruins of another construction. At the same time, Mala 6 is to be easily recognized within all scenes, including the one with the murder of the former Capri’s owner. 

The Jewish workers within the ruins of the ghetto. Movie scene
The Jewish workers within the ruins of the ghetto. The camera is directed to the East
Mala street as the filming locations
Unfortunately for the locals, Mala Street nowadays looks no less depressing than the supposed wartime Warsaw
Mala street in Warsaw. The pianist movie by Roman Polanski
pay attention to the building in the background beyond the supposed wall
Corner of Mala and Zaookopowa streets
The same building on the intersection of Mala and Zaookopowa Streets

Another night scene depicts Jewish workers, who make their way beside the preserved section of the ghetto wall. The location is the same Mala Street, yet the shots had been filmed early, in the early spring of 2001 before the demolition of the replica wall. In wider means, the same Mala Street has been styled to fit some locations within the cinematic version of the ghetto to expand its maiden geography. 

Jewish workers and the ghetto wal. The night scene
The art department did a great job of converting a 300-long street into a reflection of the Warsaw ghetto
Mala Street Praha polnoc
The same angle just without the prop wall in the middle of the street
The Warsaw ghetto in The Pianist movie
The same street just in the opposite direction
Praha Polnoc The Pinanist
I spent just about an hour here but was impressed to find all the key locations and angles from Polanski’s masterpiece

 

I am very grateful to war archives, museums, libraries, private collections, and writers for the historical photos in this article. To the extent that some author or a copyright owner may not want some of the above black-and-white photos to be used for educational purposes here, please contact me for adding credits or deleting the pictures from the article.