A Film Unfinished

Yael Hersonski's remarkable documentary intertwines footage taken by a Nazi film crew in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 (discovered after the war, plus outtakes found as recently as 1998) with commentary from three survivors, excerpts from contemporary diaries, memoranda from the Nazi commandant, and re-creations of the testimony of Willy Wist, one of the German cameramen. The major revelation here is that while the “film unfinished” had long been considered a truthful picture of the conditions in which Jews lived while awaiting transport to the death camps, the written and oral testimony emphasizes that it was basically a sham. Of course, the scenes depicting the pleasant, “normal” lives of more well-to-do residents should have aroused suspicion anyway, but the outtakes prove that even many of the sequences showing the poor suffering in squalor were staged. The result is a searing exposé of the Nazi regime's brutality and a penetrating look at the art of propaganda that touches on serious questions about the nature of historical evidence. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include Billy Wilder's 1945 short film “Death Mills” with post-liberation concentration camp footage (22 min.), an interview with author and film researcher Adrian Wood (15 min.), a segment with scholar Michael Berenbaum (4 min.), an essay by author and film scholar Annette Insdorf, a study guide, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a powerful documentary.] (F. Swietek)