ha advantages (The witness) Amichai Greenberg Israel, Austria / 91’Presented at the 74th Venice Film Festival in the Horizons Selection in cinemas for the Day of Remembrance, it fights denial
This year the selection of the Venice Horizons could not miss work that brings us back to the Memory of the Shoah. After the thriller Remember last year, This year it proposes a choral and intimate story at the same time. Choral because he puts the viewer in front of the dilemma of what he would do if he were in the place of the protagonist of this unusual story about Holocaust denial. But even intimate because it puts the protagonist at a crossroads. Whether it's a thriller you can tell from the start with the protagonist, a Holocaust researcher among the books in a library he comes across a heinous incident took place in a charming Austrian town during World War II where now a real estate company wants to build new settlements understand definitively with a layer of cement what happened then. It is a legal battle in American style with the sour taste of Israeli films and stylized minimalizzato in tight dialogues of the protagonist from that terrible episode discovers his origins and he is forced to make a choice of field. The film is another piece to keep the attention on what was absolute Evil in the Old Continent so that instead of denying it it never happens again.
In this regard we report the Commentary by Director presentation at the Venice:
I was raised with the understanding that being an observant jew, and the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, It represents the roots of my existence, the true essence of my identity: something bigger than me and life itself. As a child I was enchanted by the stories of my grandparents Holocaust. I grew up in heroic stories, unbelievable, where life and death were separated by a thin line.
For me it was the best adventure stories that there were. But my life every day contrasted with this drama. The son of Holocaust survivors, I grew up in a family with no emotions, where I felt that something was always missing. Something elusive, He was left unnamed. This huge chasm has left me speechless. The script of the film is my effort to penetrate through the transparent walls of silence.
After the official screening at the Venice there was a meeting with the cast and director in Q&A led by Alessandra De Luca which we report courtesy of the Venice Exhibition: