A Film Unfinished
2010 · 89 MIN · IMDB 7.4 · 1,934 VOTES · DIR. Yael Hersonski
Overview
Yael Hersonski's powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film-the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work, with no soundtrack, quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these "everyday" scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate.
Dialogue Timeline — 631 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:57 This is the story of a film that was never completed.
00:02:58 One can only surmise.
00:07:21 As he fought a losing battle to save all he possibly could
00:12:04 They filmed beggars and all sorts of passersby.
00:15:36 So, we took all the belongings we still had...
00:18:57 They set up their headquarters outside the Ghetto walls
00:22:25 This means that the matter has not yet been settled.
00:25:32 Yes.
00:28:56 because they were too weak to go downstairs.
00:33:38 I used to smuggle Kosher meat into the Warsaw Ghetto...
00:36:55 I could see exactly what they were doing.
00:41:30 don't surrender their humanity.
00:45:32 he called on anyone capable of resistance to keep a personal journal.
00:49:52 Forty-five years passed from the moment...
00:53:03 We didn't have a chance to express ourselves.
00:57:02 After the filming, these people vanished...
01:00:02 Woe to anyone who didn't laugh properly.
01:03:29 The diary of the Chairman of the Judenrat survived?
01:07:06 I now recall...
01:11:18 I hurried along the walls like a mouse
01:15:28 It was only then that I started to cry
01:20:06 I am no longer immune.
01:25:03 During the filming in the Warsaw Ghetto
04:00:05 which still had to be buried.