Shoah (1985)

Director:

Claude Lanzmann

Writer:

Claude Lanzmann

Release Date:

November 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage...

Plot Keywords:

Holocaust | Jew | Nazi | Poland | Train

Awards:

13 wins

Cast

Simon Srebnik	...	Himself
Michael Podchlebnik	...	Himself
Motke Zaidl	...	Himself
Hanna Zaidl	...	Herself
Jan Piwonski	...	Himself
Itzhak Dugin	...	Himself
Richard Glazer	...	Himself
Paula Biren	...	Herself
Pana Pietyra	...	Herself
Pan Filipowicz	...	Himself
Pan Falborski	...	Himself
Abraham Bomba	...	Himself
Czeslaw Borowi	...	Himself
Henrik Gawkowski	...	Himself
Rudolf Vrba	...	Himself
Inge Deutschkron	...	Herself
Franz Suchomel	...	Himself
Filip Müller	...	Himself
Joseph Oberhauser	...	Himself
Anton Spiess	...	Himself
Raul Hilberg	...	Himself
Franz Schaliing	...	Himself
Martha Michelsohn	...	Herself
Claude Lanzmann	...	Himself / Interviewer
Moshe Mordo	...	Himself
Armando Aaron	...	Himself
Walter Stier	...	Himself
Ruth Elias	...	Herself
Jan Karski	...	Himself
Franz Grassler	...	Himself
Gertude Schneider	...	Herself
Itzhak Zuckermann	...	Himself
Simha Rotem	...	Himself

Directed by
Claude Lanzmann

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Claude Lanzmann

Cinematography by
Dominique Chapuis
Jimmy Glasberg
Phil Gries		(documentary segments)
William Lubtchansky

Film Editing by
Ziva Postec
Anna Ruiz		(for one of the Treblinka sequences)

Production Management
Séverine Olivier-Lacamp	....	production manager
Stella Quef	....	production manager (as Stella Gregozz-Quef)

Sound Department
Bernard Aubouy	....	sound engineer
Danielle Fillios	....	sound editor
Anne-Marie Lhote	....	sound editor (as Anne-Marie L'Hôte)
Michel Vionnet	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Daniel Bernard	....	gaffer
Caroline Champetier	....	assistant camera (as Caroline Champetier de Ribes)
Jean-Yves Escoffier	....	assistant camera
Slavek Olczyk	....	assistant camera
Andrés Silvart	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
Geneviève de Gouvion Saint-Cyr	....	assistant editor
Bénédicte Mallet	....	assistant editor
Yael Perlov	....	assistant editor
Christine Simonot	....	assistant editor
Catherine Trouillet	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Mrs. Apflebaum	....	interpreter: Yiddish
Corinna Coulmas	....	assistant to director
Brigitte Faure	....	production accountant
Barbra Janica	....	interpreter: Poland
Francine Kaufmann	....	interpreter: Hebrew
Iréne Steinfeldt-Levi	....	assistant to director

Production Companies

• Historia
• Les Films Aleph
• Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française

Distributors

• New Yorker Films (1985) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Eureka Entertainment (2007) (UK) (DVD)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1987) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Criterion Collection, The (2013) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2011) (Spain) (DVD)
• IFC Films (2010) (USA) (all media)
• Solaris Digital (2007) (Israel) (all media)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (video) (VOD)
• Why Not Productions (2005) (worldwide) (all media)

Runtime:

Sweden:544 min (25 fps) | UK:566 min | USA:503 min

Country:

France

Language:

English | German | Hebrew | Polish | Yiddish | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:11 | Australia:PG | South Korea:12 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland

Company:

Historia

Trivia:

With a running length exceeding 9 hours, this is the longest film listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the book series edited by Steven Jay Schneider.

Quotes:

Franz Suchomel:If you lie enough,you believe your own lies.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: That'll Do, Pig (#3.10)" (2003)

A real film.

Over the past several weeks I had the opportunity to see all of Claude Lanzmann's 9 1/2-hour documentary about the Holocaust. It left me cognizant of a greater tragedy in much the same way that PIXOTE opened my eyes to the humanity on the streets of South America. Like many people who have seen SHOAH I was interested in it primarily because of the degree of praise that this film has received; some critics have called it one of the most important films ever made. Well, now that I have had time to reflect on this film for the past month can I honestly say that SHOAH is one of the greatest films ever made? To answer my own question, it depends on how you look at it.

SHOAH in now way covers the entire scope of the holocaust. Instead it focuses on the people who were sent to three specific concentration camps during WWII. The film also concentrates on the people who were involved in the deportation and execution of those who arrived to the camps. Its last hour is devoted to events that occurred around the Warsaw Ghetto. The fact that this film limits its scope made me aware that this was an account that's too big to be perfectly analyzed and deciphered. It's too complex for a standard 2 hour, 4 four or even the film's 9 1/2 hour length. It's testament to the number of documentaries about the Holocaust which have come out fairly recently. But unlike those documentaries, SHOAH seems less about the Holocaust than it is about people, whether they were the commanders who intimidated the Jews, individuals who had small farms or houses near the concentration camps or even the victims themselves. These are all people who have a story to tell. SHOAH made me think out of the context of the film a lot. The fact that it told me so much about people made me wonder about the loss of the life that occurred during the 80's when the Contras fought the Sandinistas, or when Pol Pot executed his own people, or when Stalin starved his own soldiers during the War. All of these people had a story to tell but you hear very little about these tragedies that fell on their own lives. In a way, that's so unfair. Nevertheless, SHOAH comes closer than any other documentary I have seen when it comes to showing us what makes life so sacred and special.

To be fair, there are long stretches in SHOAH that are less than riveting, and moments when you question the ethics and purposes of the filmmaker. As one commenter candidly pointed out, there are times when SHOAH is more like a chore than an experience but as Claude Lanzmann orders one interviewee during the film, "We have to do it, you know it." And that's why SHOAH has to be seen: It's a real film about a real tragedy, real events, and real people.