#85: Shoah
Part of the Top 150 Films series
Shoah brutally drags you out of your comfort zone and makes you imagine the worst of the Holocaust through the power of reflection. Lanzmann opens a window into the dark past of Europe through which we experience the absurdity and brutality of one of the darkest periods of human history. His greatest achievement (as well as that of the film) is his stoicism in the face of immutable evil and its corresponding suffering. One of its key elements is the issue of language. Lanzmann, his translator and the interviewee in question often talk at the same time in different languages creating a “language salad”, highlighting the barrier between Poles, Jews and Germans and its role in exacerbating the nightmare. Despite its lack of archival footage and its immense runtime, Shoah puts you right in the middle of the story and creates a chilling atmosphere. There is no place to run.
