Arizona Reporter - Harvey Critic - 27/07
A FILM UNFINISHED - Or is it?
Given the presence of overt anti-Semitism in the Arab world (think of Rashid Ali's pro-Nazi regime in Iraq) and a more subtle hatred of Jews elsewhere, Hitler thought he was doing the world a favor by exterminating Jews. If so, one wonders why he believed world opinion would turn against him if he graphically exhibited the way that Germany was dealing with Jews unfortunate enough to be in Germany or occupied countries. That he showed concern about world opinion is on display in Yael Hersonski's doc, "A Film Unfinished." Or is it?
by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed By: Yael Hersonski
Written By: Yael Hersonski
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 7/26/10
Opens: August 18, 2010
The film was sitting in a vault after the German propaganda ministry declared a halt before completion. "A Film Unfinished," an unfortunately generic title that could apply to just about any genre, shows in one more way that Germans had been compulsive about providing written and celluloid records about their "1000-year-Reich." Much of this propaganda account had been contrived by the Nazis, aided by the members of the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive, actual account of what Jews went through in Poland's most important city under the Nazi occupation. In the walled area, Jews were herded, one to a room in apartments with space for only small families-a transit station before being shipped East to the gas chambers and crematoria of Treblinka.
Most of the 89 minutes consists of raw footage taken by Willy Wist, whose testimony is later added and who exclaims, "I had no idea that the Jews were being sent to their deaths!" A small segment seems to be for the purpose of showing that the Germans were treating the Jews fine. In the contrived scenes, Jewish residents are well-dressed in spiffy accommodations, including one theater in which the Jewish audience were ordered to laugh loudly. In another event Jews are drinking champagne, socializing and dancing.
By contrast, the majority of this narrated work shows the real horrors of the ghetto. Emaciated people line the streets. Those too malnourished or diseased to walk line the sidewalks, while corpses are bypassed by those who are still ambulatory. Perhaps the propaganda aim is to show that the rich Jews did not care a whit about their starving brethren, people who are presumably not oppressed by the Nazis but who are simply lacking funds to buy food. (Anyone caught smuggling food into the ghetto is shot, as is one eight-year-old boy who is led away, captured on celluloid by Herr Wist.) Women who are not yet famished are ordered to go to the mikva, the ritual baths, while outdoors, a circumcision is seen, presided by bearded, Orthodox Jews. To what end? Who knows? Maybe the Nazis wanted people to think that these customs are weird.
No actual beatings are shown. Nonetheless a major flaw in the entire production is that not even the press notes indicate whether the Nazis are trying to show that Jews are living it up (only a small percentage are, in conjured-up action), or that the rich Jews did not care about their poor comrades. Maybe it was designed to show that the Jews are dirty, malnourished people who deserved what they got. Again, who knows? The project was abandoned before completion, perhaps because the propaganda ministry did not see a target audience. Essentially, "A Film Unfinished" is a record of life in the Warsaw ghetto before the gruesome transfers East.
A FILM UNFINISHED
Unrated. 89 minutes. © 2010 Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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A FILM UNFINISHED (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
"To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive, actual account of what Jews went through in Poland's most important city under the Nazi occupation." ~ Harvey Karten
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter
by Harvey Karten
Grade: B
Directed By: Yael Hersonski
Written By: Yael Hersonski
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 7/26/10
Opens: August 18, 2010
The film was sitting in a vault after the German propaganda ministry declared a halt before completion. "A Film Unfinished," an unfortunately generic title that could apply to just about any genre, shows in one more way that Germans had been compulsive about providing written and celluloid records about their "1000-year-Reich." Much of this propaganda account had been contrived by the Nazis, aided by the members of the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive, actual account of what Jews went through in Poland's most important city under the Nazi occupation. In the walled area, Jews were herded, one to a room in apartments with space for only small families-a transit station before being shipped East to the gas chambers and crematoria of Treblinka.
Most of the 89 minutes consists of raw footage taken by Willy Wist, whose testimony is later added and who exclaims, "I had no idea that the Jews were being sent to their deaths!" A small segment seems to be for the purpose of showing that the Germans were treating the Jews fine. In the contrived scenes, Jewish residents are well-dressed in spiffy accommodations, including one theater in which the Jewish audience were ordered to laugh loudly. In another event Jews are drinking champagne, socializing and dancing.
By contrast, the majority of this narrated work shows the real horrors of the ghetto. Emaciated people line the streets. Those too malnourished or diseased to walk line the sidewalks, while corpses are bypassed by those who are still ambulatory. Perhaps the propaganda aim is to show that the rich Jews did not care a whit about their starving brethren, people who are presumably not oppressed by the Nazis but who are simply lacking funds to buy food. (Anyone caught smuggling food into the ghetto is shot, as is one eight-year-old boy who is led away, captured on celluloid by Herr Wist.) Women who are not yet famished are ordered to go to the mikva, the ritual baths, while outdoors, a circumcision is seen, presided by bearded, Orthodox Jews. To what end? Who knows? Maybe the Nazis wanted people to think that these customs are weird.
No actual beatings are shown. Nonetheless a major flaw in the entire production is that not even the press notes indicate whether the Nazis are trying to show that Jews are living it up (only a small percentage are, in conjured-up action), or that the rich Jews did not care about their poor comrades. Maybe it was designed to show that the Jews are dirty, malnourished people who deserved what they got. Again, who knows? The project was abandoned before completion, perhaps because the propaganda ministry did not see a target audience. Essentially, "A Film Unfinished" is a record of life in the Warsaw ghetto before the gruesome transfers East.
A FILM UNFINISHED
Unrated. 89 minutes. © 2010 Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online
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