A Film Unfinished

Invited

At the end of World War II, 60 minutes of raw film, shot by the Nazis propaganda machine, was discovered in an East German archive. Depicting everyday life in the Warsaw Ghetto, the footage quickly gained traction as an important historical document. The recent discovery of a missing reel, however, reveals an elaborate ruse. Shots were staged to suggest that some Jews lived the good life—multiple takes of luxuriously dressed residents thoughtlessly stepping over the bodies of fellow Jews, for example, as well as a choreographed dinner party. Beneath the furs were the emaciated bodies of “actors” fearful for their lives. A Film Unfinished presents the entire film, carefully noting which sequences are fictionalized. Featuring firsthand accounts from residents used in the filming, an interview with the only cinematographer identified with the production, and scenes in which former residents of the Ghetto review footage, A Film Unfinished is a document of enormous import: it both chronicles some of the worst horrors of our time and reveals the lengths to which the perpetrators went to cast them in a different light.  ST

Director

Yael Hersonski

Producer

Noemi Schory

Editor

Joelle Alexis

Cinematographer

Itai Neeman

Release Year

2009

Festival Year

2010

Country

Germany, Israel

Run Time

88 minutes