By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Yael Hersonski
Original language title: Shtikat Haarchion
Country: germany, israel
Year: 2010
Running time: 88
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568923/
TC says: “I can’t describe what an amazing, powerful movie this is. The film focuses on four reels of film shot in 1942 in the Warsaw ghetto by Nazi filmmakers who were making a propaganda film. But for some reason, the film was never finished – it was abandoned about 1/2 way through the editing process, and the film sat in an underground vault in East Berlin for decades. The fourth reel of film shows behind the scenes on the filming process, and was only uncovered a few years ago, the rest were discovered just a short time after the war.
“I found myself mesmerized by the imagery of the film, which truly shows just what MONSTERS the Nazis were. And interspersed with the film are the comments of four people who were witness to the filming, and a reenactment of the testimony of one of the cameramen from an early 1960s war crimes trial.
“If there is ANYONE out there who doesn’t believe the atrocities that were committed to the Jews in World War II, this movie is going to go a long way to change their mind. The images of people being dumped into mass graves has been seared into my mind and will be with me for the rest of my life. This films should be seen by EVERYONE…if only in the hopes that we never repeat what happened…
“My Score: 5 cats”