The
Goethe-Institut Nigeria and the
Alliance Française de Lagos are participating in the worldwide screening of the documentary SHOAH by Claude Lanzmann, which is organised by the
internationales literaturfestival berlin [ilb] to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on 27 January 1945.
The 9½-hour film will be screened in 4 Parts: Parts 1 to 3 will start with brief introductions, providing some historical contextualization. Before the screening of Part 4, the Nigerian historian and filmmaker, Ed Keazor, will talk about different aspects of the culture of remembrance.
Schedule:
Claude Lanzmann divided Shoah into two parts. In order to allow for more breaks we will show the film in four parts followed by a Q&A session.
Part 1 10:15–12:50
Part 2 13:10–15:10
Part 3 15:30–18:10
Part 4 18:30–20:55
Q&A Session 20:55–ca 21:30
In order to keep the level of disturbance low in the cinema and out of respect for the topic of the documentary we would like to kindly ask you to arrive at the indicated start times.
About the Film:
In the 9½-hour film both, surviving victims and perpetrators of the systematic extermination of Jews by the German Reich, have a chance to speak.
According to Claude Lanzmann - who worked on the film for eleven years (1974-1985) - "Shoah" is not a film about survival but a “testimonial of death”. It not only asks the witnesses to recall their experiences: Lanzmann's questioning technique prompts his interviewees to relive the past events. His questions revolve around events at the sites where Jews were murdered such as Chelmno, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Warsaw Ghetto, laying open the bureaucratic mechanism of extermination.
The Berlinale awarded the director the Honorary Golden Bear for his life’s work in 2013. His film is regarded as an »epochal masterpiece of memory studies«. For whatever bizarre reasons, his film was only shown in the “Forum” in its year of release (1985) in Germany – the younger generations barely know him anymore. In view of these circumstances and the new wave of anti-Semitism, which is virulent worldwide – especially in the USA, United Kingdom, France, and Germany – the international presentation is clear. January 27, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, was introduced by the United Nations in 2005 to commemorate the Holocaust and the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on January 27, 1945. The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was the largest German extermination camp during National Socialism. About 1.1 million people were murdered there. A total of over 5.6 million people fell victim to the Holocaust.
Shoah, France 1974 – 1985, colour, DCP (16mm), ca. 566 mins, With English subtitles.
Directed by Claude Lanzmann, Camera: Dominique Chapuis, Jimmy Glasberg, William Lubtchansky, Editors: Ziva Postec, Anna Ruiz, Sound: Bernard Aubouy, Michel Vionnet.
Claude Lanzmann was born in Paris in 1925 and as a teenager experienced the invasion of German troops into France. In 1943 grammar-school pupil Lanzmann joined the resistance in Clermont-Ferrand and went underground to fight the Nazis. After the war, he completed studies in philosophy, earning his doctorate in 1947, and subsequently took a position as a lecturer at Berlin Free University in 1948/49. In 1953 Lanzmann, who belonged to Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s circle, became a permanent collaborator on the legendary political and literary journal Les Temps Modernes. In 1970 he made his first forays into the world of filmmaking, which also document his political engagement against French policies in Algeria. Towards the end of the Algerian War, Lanzmann signed the “Manifeste des 121”, an open letter against French war crimes. In his 1973 film Pourquoi Israel?, Lanzmann explored his own Jewish identity. He began work on Shoah the following year. He died on 5 July 2018.
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