Claude Lanzmann's landmark documentary about the holocaust. Lanzmann spent twelve years spanning the globe for surviving camp inmates, SS commandants, and eyewitnesses of the "Final Solution". Without dramatic re-enactment or archival footage - but with extraordinary testimonies - Shoahrenders the step-by-step machinery of extermination, and through haunted landscapes and human voices, makes the past come brilliantly alive.
Absent from the film is any imagery shot at the time the Holocaust occurred. There is only Lanzmann and his crew, filming in private spaces and now-dormant zones of eradication to extract testimony from a series of survivors, witnesses, and oppressors alike. Through his relentless questioning (aided on occasion by hidden camera), Lanzmann is able to coax out material of unparalleled emotional truth that constitutes both precious oral history and withering indictment.
Shoah is a work of genius, an heroic endeavour to humanise the inhuman, to tell the untellable, and to explore in unprecedented detail the horros of the past. It is an immensely disturbing experience, yet in its solemnity and beauty not a morbid or disheartening one. There are few works of art which leave one with such a deep appreciation for the preciousness and meaning of life. For these reasons, Shoah is one of the most powerful and important films of all time.
"I consider Shoah to be the greatest documentary about contemporary history ever made, bar none, and by far the greatest film I've ever seen about the Holocaust." - Marcel Ophuls.
DVD Features
Director-approved edition
New progressive transfer
Improved English subtitles
184-page book featuring writing by Stuart Liebman and analysis by Claude Lanzmann
Additional Information
More Information
SKU
5060000402421
Catalogue Number
EKA40242
Subtitle
a film by Claude Lanzmann
Product contents
4 discs
Year
1985
Format
DVD
Publisher(s)
Eureka Masters of Cinema
Countries
France
Aspect ratio
1.33:1
Colour
Colour
Sound
Mono
Subtitles
English
Language(s)
English | German | Hebrew | Polish | Yiddish | French