The Relief of Belsen (2007) (TV)

Director:

Justin Hardy

Writers:

Peter Guinness (written by)
Justin Hardy (written by)

Release Date:

15 October 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Concentration Camp | Bergen Belsen | Nazi Concentration Camp | Holocaust | Shoah

Cast

Katrine Bach	...	Lotti Burns
Simon Day	...	Major Stadler (as Simon Paisley Day)
Oliver Ford Davies	...	Martin Lipscomb
Iain Glen	...	James Johnston
Iddo Goldberg	...	Emmanuel Fisher
Vern Griffiths	...	Richard Dimbleby
Paul Hilton	...	Leslie Hardman
Nigel Lindsay	...	Mervyn Gonin
Tobias Menzies	...	Derrick Sington
Henry Pettigrew	...	Alexander Paton
Corin Redgrave	...	Glyn Hughes
Jemma Redgrave	...	Jean McFarlane
Erich Redman	...	Hans Eckhart
Christopher Sloman	...	Cecil Warren
Frog Stone	...	Hadassah Bimko

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Netherlands:16

Company:

Hardy and Sons

We can save peoples lives, by remembering them that they are human

The true filmed history of the liberation of the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in 1945, dramatized with good acting. We follow the last 23 days of the World War II, and the struggle to keep people alive from the horrid of the German empire.

Even after the liberation of the camp containing tens of thousands of prisoners in the two twin camps, the people are dying from famine and typhus, and shrunken inner organs after years in starvation.

Gripping and compelling, but it takes time before the story really take a hold of you. It might be the lack of budget, making this some kind of a part time documentary.

The use of hand held cameras adds to the reality, though it's obvious that the film crew has tried to make the best out of their budget, they rather try to show the reaction and the faces of the nurses and soldiers, than the misery.

The scenes of misery is real footage and filming made in 1945, quite good blended in with a history telling voice. This form demands us to get into this way of storytelling, and succeeds after a while. Then you start feeling the despair and disbelief of efforts not working, until it suddenly does, while looking worse than ever.

Well done on an obviously too small budget. A compelling storytelling of some of the worst episodes in human history.

Life and reality seems on a different planet, and is told so when a military chief gives the message while looking in at the seek-beds. "By the way. Apparently, they say the war is over!"