“Lanzmann’s monumental nine-and-a-half-hour investigation into the extermination of the Jews in World War II famously includes no archival footage, a controversial decision by the director that continues to reverberate in debates on documentary practice and film ethics more broadly. Lanzmann did not consider the film to be, strictly speaking, a Holocaust documentary, but rather an assemblage of first-person testimonies by survivors, witnesses and former members of the Nazi Party. As such, it is one of the most important cinematic contributions of all time. The insistent and pervasive presence of the past in the present, nowhere more visible than in contemporary European and, for that matter, global conflicts, bears eloquent witness to Lanzmann’s timeless and visionary achievement.” Catherine Portuges
“I’m still in awe of what Lanzmann and his team were able to achieve: to show us the sheer evil that can be found within humanity. Constantly, slowly but surely, it punches you in the face again and again.” James Harrison
