The Things We Cannot Say

In 1942, Europe is in the grip of war and a refugee camp frames a young woman’s decision to speak wedding vows that conceal a lie. Alina Dziak, who had planned to marry her childhood friend Tomasz, faces the slow, brutal imposition of Nazi occupation on her tiny rural Polish village as neighbors are divided by fear and hate. As the occupation tightens its hold, Tomasz disappears and Alina counts the spaces between hope and despair while avoiding soldiers on her parents’ farm. The narrative alternates between Nazi‑occupied Poland and a modern life where the buried lie resurfaces and forces a search for answers about family and identity.