The title of Tanja Cummings’s documentary refers to a trolley line that passed through the Łódź Ghetto holding Jewish residents in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. The trolley never actually stopped in this section of the city, where the virtual prisoners watched as the indifferent passengers passed by on a daily basis. Line 41 centers on the postwar lives of two men with very different experiences during this period: Natan Grossmann survived the ghetto but lost contact with his parents and brother, who all perished in the Holocaust. Jens-Jürgen Ventzki was born in 1944 as the son of Werner Ventzki, the city’s Nazi mayor. Grossmann tries to exorcise memories of the ghetto and seeks answers about his family’s deaths, while Ventzki struggles to come to terms with the unspeakable horror fueled by his father’s actions. The film compares occupied Łódź with today’s city--Grossmann here makes his first return trip--and Cummings uses haunting ink sketches to recreate the degradation and misery of the ghetto occupants. While wartime Łódź was the focus of one of the most significant Holocaust documentaries--the 1988 classic Łódź Ghetto (VL-7/91)--this work offers a more intimate but no less painful consideration of the subject. Extras include bonus footage. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
Line 41
(2015) 96 min. In German & Polish w/English subtitles. DVD: $24.95. Film Movement (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned.<em> Volume 33, Issue 3
Line 41
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