Close your eyes. Turn away. Forget. But can you? Is ‘catharsis’ the driving force behind the making of numerous Holocaust-based movies?
With the deluge of films like “The Pianist”, “Schindler’s List”, “The Diary of Anne Frank”, “Judgment at Nuremberg”, “Europa Europa”, “Out of the Ashes”… the list goes on. Will the hurt that was inflicted so long ago ever heal? Are the movies meant to delude us? Or are they meant for us to never forget the heinous atrocities inflicted on a singular race!
Last night, I watched a film directed by Lajos Koltai in 2005. A Hungarian film, “Fateless” is based on Imre Kertész‘s ’74 novel, Sorstalanság. The author, a Nobel Prize winner, is a survivor of the Holocaust. The perspective depicted in his film is uniquely removed from that portrayed in numerous other films I’ve watched on this intense subject.
In a recent article in International Herald Tribune, A.O. Scott touches upon “Why so many Holocaust films now, and for whose benefit?”
Genocide has recurred time and again in different parts of the world. The people may differ, and geography apart, time and again, history has proof that humans are completely capable of annihilating fellow beings. To what end, for whose benefit?
Words-n-Motion 
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