From acclaimed director Sergei Loznitsa comes Austerlitz, a stunning look at the phenomenon of “Holocaust tourism.” Shot in low-contrast black and white, Austerlitz follows several groups as they tour through the concentration camps of Dacau and Sachsenhausen. Loznitsa captures tourists meandering by gas chambers, looking bored, checking phones, and taking selfies, as if his subjects were strolling at the local mall. As he wanders among tour groups, he also captures the dispiriting commentary from paid guides, who should ostensibly know better—summing up the Holocaust for easy digestion, joking that, unlike the victims of the camp, the tourists will be able to get something to eat later. Driven less by the need to diminish the visitors but instead to try and come to grips with society’s need to see and understand the Holocaust, Austerlitz is a breathtaking look at history. “[A] haunting meditation, in which the physical history of the camps battles with oblivion.” —The New York Times
Director’s Biography
Sergei Loznitsa was born in 1964 in Belarus. A graduate of Kiev Polytechnic with a degree in engineering and mathematics, he worked developing artificial intelligence and as a Japanese translator. Following his love of cinema, he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow in 1997. He has directed a number of internationally acclaimed documentary and narrative films.
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