Shoah (1985)

Review: Shoah (1985)

Director: Claude Lanzmann

Cast: Claude Lanzmann, Simon Srebnik, Michael Podchlebnik, Motke Zaidl, Jan Karski,

Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann
Simon Srebnik
Simon Srebnik
Michael Podchlebnik
Michael Podchlebnik
Motke Zaidl
Motke Zaidl
Jan Karski
Jan Karski

Plot: Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories – survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators – Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee, and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka.

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Listmania redux: The Greatest Documentaries of All Time, part three

Listmania redux: The Greatest Documentaries of All Time, part three

In part three of my response to the Sight & Sound list of “greatest documentaries”, I finally get around to comparing my own choices with those in the magazine, finding some points of overlap and others of […]

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