Claude Lanzman's film Shoah (Catastrophe) was shown as part of
the Memorial Days ceremonies honoring victims of Babyn Yar.
The main heroes of this documentary are miraculous survivors of the
Holocaust and their children. The film director, having spent more than
ten years shooting his saga on the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis
during World War II, managed to meet with executioners and record their
cynical openness on the doctrine of "the find solution to the Jewish problem"
on a hidden camera.
There seem to be no "extra" frames in this screen requiem. The director,
using survivors' stories, superb natural footing and a rich collection
of clippings has created, according to critics, a fugue of towns and events.
This poetic nine-hour movie canvas fails to tire its spectators not only
from its emotional captivation but also due to its artistic imagery. One
example is an episode of testimonies from a former Auschwitz prisoner replaced
with a view of a rail road. As wheels rumble in the background, the camera
leads us to a huge closed gate to a concentration camp which kept hidden
from the world the truth about the horrible death factory than killed tens
of thousands of innocent people who were delivered there by echelons from
various European countries. It is hard to imagine the will-power needed
by the Shoah characters to take a walk with the camera down the "death
road" which they were forced to walk in the early 1940's, herded by Nazis
to the gate behind which they survived hunger, torture, excessive horror
and the paralysis of hope.
According to officers of the French Embassy who presented the film to
Ukrainian spectators, since its completion in 1985, the film has been shown
in movie theaters and on TV in a number of countries, and more than 80
million people have seen it. Let's hope that Ukrainian film-goers have
more than just two opportunities to see this passionate anti-Nazi film
at the capital's Kinopanorama movie theater, which, by the way, the film
director attended himself. At least The Day managed to find out
that some Ukrainian TV-companies are negotiating the possibility for broadcasting
the film on TV.







