20 October 2013

The Last of the Unjust (Claude Lanzmann, 2013)

7.5/10
In 1985 Claude Lanzmann released Shoah, a 9-hour documentary on the Holocaust. While researching the documentary he met Benjamin Murmelstein, the only surviving Elder of the Jews from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He filmed a week's worth of conversations with Murmelstein, but wrestled with what to do with the footage until recently, when he edited it into the Last of the Unjust (a term Murmelstein uses to refer to himself).
So, effectively, this is a 3 hour conversation between Lanzmann and Murmelstein in 1975, with occasional excerpts of Lanzmann in present-day visiting some of the sites mentioned. I won't summarize Murmelstein's life here but it's certainly an interesting film and Murmelstein is a very complex individual with a fascinating story to tell. He comes across as incredibly intelligent, self-aware and wry. I wouldn’t dare pass judgement on him.

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