"Le dernier des injustes" or "The Last of the Unjust" is a co-production between France and Austria that resulted in a 2013 movie that runs for a massive over 3.5 hours. But if you know writer and director Claude Lanzmann, then you already expected this perhaps (or expected an even longer film) as he is the man behind "Shoah". But back to this one here. It is Lanzmann's most recent work and given the director's age, it may very well be his last. He is over 90 now and this film by him also received some awards recognition. A lot of the footage in here is however really old. This refers in particular to Lanzmann's interviews with Benjamin Murmelstein, who was considered the last living Elder Jew at that point and this description implies that he was the one working together with the Nazis at concentration camps (namely the one in Theresienstadt) in order to be an interface between captors and captives. This is also why he is a bit of a controversial figure, even if most people today would agree as well that he was a victim of the entire situation and not an aggressor of any kind.
Anyway, there are passages in French too, but a whole lot of the movie is in German language because of the interviewee's nationality. Lanzmann is French of course, but he also speaks German during the interviews and this is also a bit of a sign of respect towards Murmelstein, who has a lot of interesting stuff to talk about, some of it involving high-profile Nazi politicians that he was in direct contact with. I myself found these interview parts also the most interesting sequences of the film. And while I enjoyed the film overall, I cannot deny that people with no great interest in European 20th century history will probably come to the conclusion that the film drags quite a bit. Maybe the best choice for these is to not watch it or watch it maybe in 7 parts of 30 minutes each or 5 episodes of roughly 45 minutes as watching the entire thing at once may just not be too rewarding. Anyway, I think that Murmelstein was really interesting enough of a character to not only justify the making of this film, but also to let me recommend it to everybody who is as interested in the days of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust as myself. Thumbs up and I believe it is on the same ölevel as "Shoah" quality-wise, even if it is not half as famous.
Anyway, there are passages in French too, but a whole lot of the movie is in German language because of the interviewee's nationality. Lanzmann is French of course, but he also speaks German during the interviews and this is also a bit of a sign of respect towards Murmelstein, who has a lot of interesting stuff to talk about, some of it involving high-profile Nazi politicians that he was in direct contact with. I myself found these interview parts also the most interesting sequences of the film. And while I enjoyed the film overall, I cannot deny that people with no great interest in European 20th century history will probably come to the conclusion that the film drags quite a bit. Maybe the best choice for these is to not watch it or watch it maybe in 7 parts of 30 minutes each or 5 episodes of roughly 45 minutes as watching the entire thing at once may just not be too rewarding. Anyway, I think that Murmelstein was really interesting enough of a character to not only justify the making of this film, but also to let me recommend it to everybody who is as interested in the days of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust as myself. Thumbs up and I believe it is on the same ölevel as "Shoah" quality-wise, even if it is not half as famous.