The Labyrinth

Filmmaker Jason A. Schmidt looks at an astonishing and tragic art exhibition created by Marian Kolodziej, a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz who entered the concentration camp at 17, where he endured for five years. Kolodziej went on to have a successful career as a set and costume designer for film and theater before suffering a stroke in 1993, after which he used drawing as part of his rehabilitation therapy, tapping into long-buried memories of his incarceration for his subject matter. The resulting output, titled “The Labyrinth” and exhibited in a church basement near Auschwitz, offers a horrifying vision of hollow-eyed, skeletal beings driven to extremes of labor and starvation, while suffering sadistic torture at the hands of monstrous overlords. Kolodziej, who died in 2009, created a collective masterpiece capturing the pain and fear of the prisoners in darkly detailed ink drawings. As the camera slowly scans every inch of Kolodziej's extensive work, the artist's recollections are somberly narrated by Roman Czarny against the ethereal sounds of Marek Zebrowski's haunting score. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)