A FILM UNFINISHED (2010)
Directed by : Yael Hersonski
It was an idea the Nazis never followed through with - make a propaganda film inside the Warsaw Ghetto showing wealthy Jews living it up, while the less fortunate suffered and died around them. Of course, no Jews were living it up inside the ghetto - the Germans had to bring in actors, champagne, good food and nice clothes, all the while ordering those forced to take part into smiling and laughing - the person who laughed the least was made an example of, and soon all of the participants were laughing more than they'd ever laughed in their lives. All the while living skeletons, corpses, the diseased and other signs of forced overcrowding and deprivation were all around. The film, in the editing stages, was found in a storeroom that housed much of the Third Reich's shunted away reels of state-sponsored recordings. It ended up being an invaluable tool for many, as it showed first-hand what conditions were like, and what was happening at this stage in the process of what the Nazis were doing to these people. It's impossible to hide the fact that conditions were horrendous, and that these people were being thinned out already. Faeces piled in the streets, corpses on the sidewalks, kids dressed in rags with looks of madness on their faces - it's a vision of hell, and yet, rather incredibly, things were yet to get much worse for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Yael Hersonski's documentary combines footage and interviews of ghetto survivors watching the film with recitals from the diaries of Adam Czerniaków (the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Council, who committed suicide when the deportations to the extermination camps started), passages from the testimony of Willy Wist at a Nazi trial, one of the camera operators on this operation - and of course the film itself, which is still shocking despite everything I've already seen through the years. For some reason, seeing this brutality, starvation and horror on what had once been ordinary city streets is beyond comprehension - and I can't understand how any German could see this and not immediately conclude that it was pure, and particularly severe, unadulterated madness. Those who were making the film got caught, I think, in a bit of a ironic loop. They wanted to show how good the conditions were in the ghetto, and set up the interior of restaurants serving huge helpings of the most delicious treats, dance halls with well dressed ghetto residents having the time of their life and theaters with everyone having a ball. But they also wanted to show "another side" to all of this - a kind of "typical Jewish greed creating misery" side which went on to show that actually, some people in the ghetto were being neglected to death. Hang on, neglected to death? Why weren't....and there you have it.
When you see the film, you can just imagine the realization dawning on the Germans who were trying to edit it together. It actually paints a damning picture not only of the fake "greedy Jewish" people hoarding the wealth, but the Germans themselves - who had obviously created conditions that were too cruel and unusual to justify in a propaganda film to their own citizens. Although the Germans may have been a little shocked by this film, they wouldn't even know that the so called "wealthy, greedy Jews" were an invention of the SS - and that
all of the Jews in the ghetto were living in severely overcrowded, unhealthy, unsanitary conditions with virtually no healthcare, disease rampant, corpses on the street and harsh treatment from their overseers. The "wealthy" ones were giving up the diamond rings they'd kept a hold of for, at worst, a loaf of bread, or a piece of horse meat - at best ordinary food. The SS were so wrapped up in what they were doing that they nearly put out a film which actually showed the walking skeletons, dead children, filth and desperation - thinking they could blame the Jews themselves. They just caught themselves, realising that it wouldn't be logical, and that they'd stir more misgivings than create useful anti-Jewish propaganda. In the meantime, the film lay in that vault as one of the extremely rare records of life in the Warsaw ghetto. Much of the accuracy in modern films owes itself to it's existence. A disquieting documentary - for obvious reasons.
Glad to catch this one - won Best Documentary at the Satellite Awards, Emmy Awards, Sundance, Shanghai and Women Film Critics Circle.
Watchlist Count : 435 (-15)
Next : Murmur (2019)
Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch
A Film Unfinished.