No doubt many would blame the borderline-apathetic response to concentration camps seen in this film on technology - they take selfies on the gallows poles and with the "work will set you free" sign, for Christ's sake - but Sergei Lozintsa hit on a salient point in his Q&A: he stated that the problem is not that they are ignorant as to what went on, but that they know too much.

The Holocaust is now more than 70 years old, which is nothing in the span of history but is a lifetime in human terms. It's quite likely that many of the people here do not know anybody who died in the Holocaust or even who fought in World War…

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My capsule review for Cinema Scope's TIFF coverage:

Throughout his career, as both a documentarian and the director of two feature films, Sergei Loznitsa has explored various facets of one fundamental subject: the way the human race records its own history. At times, this has led him toward excavation and re-examination of the footage of others, in films such as Blockade (2005), Revue (2008), and last year’s The Event. At other times, Loznitsa has shot his own material, offering a self-reflexive view of contemporary life as it interfaces with the past. This approach can be rigorously formal (Landscape, 2003), distanced and sociological (Factory, 2004), or observed while caught up in the tangle of current events, as revolutionaries are busily…

Este documental consiste en una serie de planos de turistas acudiendo al antiguo campo de concentración de Austerlitz. La película se inicia con una secuencia a las puertas del mismo y finaliza con una imagen de la salida, de manera que se plantea como una especie de recorrido filmado al modo de una visita. Por lo increíblemente obvio de su planteamiento, la temática escogida y el énfasis que pone en algunos elementos resulta evidente que pretende hacer algún tipo de reflexión en torno a cómo hasta algo tan solemne como un campo de exterminio nazi se puede convertir en un parque de atracciones.

Algo que hay que tener muy presente viendo cine es que nada o casi nada suele estar…

Este documental me ha traído, de forma irremediable, recuerdos de cuando visité hace dos años el campo de exterminio de Auschwitz-Birkneau. Recuerdo apenado cómo el primer impulso de algunos era fotografiar una urna que contenía cenizas humanas antes que pararse en silencio frente a ella; cómo otros se abalanzaban sobre el cristal que mostraba toneladas de pelo humano para sacar una instantánea aunque estuviera prohibido; cómo había gente comiendo despreocupada entre los barracones aunque los guías se hartaran de decir que no se podía comer ahí. Pero también vi a cientos y cientos de personas, de todas las partes del mundo, permanecer calladas cuando entraban en la cámara de gas y recorrer los pasillos de literas conscientes del sufrimiento que…

Austerlitz is a bit of a conceptual film that explores, in various shots and sequences, the relationship between 2010s tourists with evidence of a tragedy that occurred like before most, if not all, of them were born. It doesn't indict the people shown onscreen per se—most appear respectful, or at least composed, even the ones wearing "irreverent" screen-print T-shirts—so much as it calls out the kitschiness of the institution of Holocaust tourism and the hubris of the thought that we can understand the Holocaust from walking around a concentration camp and listening to tour guides deliver prepared speeches for the umpteenth time. In a way, Sergei Loznitsa has created something of an Akerman-esque lanscape film; remove the people, and there…

Durante una calda giornata estiva, nel campo di concentramento di Sachsenhausen (come in qualsiasi altro luogo di morte e memoria) ogni gesto compiuto dalle centinaia di individui che passano di fronte alla macchina da presa sembra inadeguato: gente che beve, mangia, ride, fotografa, si mette in posa, veste magliette di Jurassic Park, indossa shorts e bermuda. Lonitza ci mostra i risultati di un turismo di massa insensato, più esperienza obbligata che vero momento di riflessione, dove tutti (uomini, donne, giovani, anziani) vengono ritratti sullo stesso piano, senza alcuna differenza.
Quelle che seguono sono un paio di riflessioni critiche dal basso della mia ignoranza, che molto probabilmente mi porteranno fuori strada, ma balenate nella mia testa a pochi minuti dall'inizio. Prima…

Although this film has frequently been categorized as Slow Cinema, it is more accurate to say that it is a film of shifting temporalities. The first 30 minutes feel like 10 hours, but the final hour flows by without disturbing one's assimilation into the environment via the static eye of the camera.

I am left with more questions than answers:

-What are the consequences of treating the sites of historical trauma as we might treat an amusement park or other tourist attraction, and how does this impact not only the remembrance of history but the transmission of its emotional affect?

-Why do people take posed photos at these sites of trauma? What do they plan to do with these photos,…

I’ve been frustrated at this movie not being that easily available so ended up spending a few quid to watch it via Vimeo – a really good service by the way – it takes about five minutes to make its point and while that is a very interesting one indeed and one that can launch a huge amount of discussion, the film itself doesn’t really work, consisting as it does of tourists on a blazing summer day visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp, with no commentary. Of course it is a little shocking to see folk in crop tops and short shorts idly making their way between the buildings where people were murdered but can we really judge them? Should one put…

I watched this film back in 2016 on FICCI. At the moment I thought it was a clever exercise but nothing else. Four years later, and after I've decided that my master thesis subject will be something very similar to what Loznitsa achieved with this masterful film, I'm nothing but inspired and amazed by it. There's nothing new on the questions the director is asking, and even so, the things he seems to be trying to portrait, but the truth is that there's also something very unique on the observational nature of the camera on this particular film. Even as simple as it sounds, the exploration and the interest of capturing that relationship between history, human nature, and atrocity is…

There's a distinct vision here that's uncomfortably challenging: yes, in the artistic presentation, but more so in the rhetoric of these visual lyrics. After you get used to people-watching mode, you start seeing rude t-shirts and realize where you are. Your perspective changes entirely and the judgements you place on these randoms become much more critical. But the irony is that you've almost certainly been a part of these crowds at some point in the past. And at the same time, I asked myself, "What kind of behaviour IS appropriate here?" I scorned the guy who was re-enacting an execution and the girl who nicely posed in front of the ovens. It's so crass from our current vantage point, but…

Este documental me ha traído, de forma irremediable, recuerdos de cuando visité hace dos años el campo de exterminio de Auschwitz-Birkneau. Recuerdo apenado cómo el primer impulso de algunos era fotografiar una urna que contenía cenizas humanas antes que pararse en silencio frente a ella; cómo otros se abalanzaban sobre el cristal que mostraba toneladas de pelo humano para sacar una instantánea aunque estuviera prohibido; cómo había gente comiendo despreocupada entre los barracones aunque los guías se hartaran de decir que no se podía comer ahí. Pero también vi a cientos y cientos de personas, de todas las partes del mundo, permanecer calladas cuando entraban en la cámara de gas y recorrer los pasillos de literas conscientes del sufrimiento que…

Austerlitz is a bit of a conceptual film that explores, in various shots and sequences, the relationship between 2010s tourists with evidence of a tragedy that occurred like before most, if not all, of them were born. It doesn't indict the people shown onscreen per se—most appear respectful, or at least composed, even the ones wearing "irreverent" screen-print T-shirts—so much as it calls out the kitschiness of the institution of Holocaust tourism and the hubris of the thought that we can understand the Holocaust from walking around a concentration camp and listening to tour guides deliver prepared speeches for the umpteenth time. In a way, Sergei Loznitsa has created something of an Akerman-esque lanscape film; remove the people, and there…

Knowing how deliberate Loznitsa is with his films, it is safe to asume that he picked summer over winter to go to film. And there is a clear reason for it, as it is much less of a fun attraction when walking through the places during a cold November's dirge. Plus, summer attracts the highest numbers of visitors. Seeing people in shorts, discussing mundane matters, listening to toilet anouncements, participating in dumb quizes with guides, and taking photos (out of all places) around the "Arbeit macht frei" sogns, invokes more of a county fair vibe rather than a place of tragic memory. Whether to choke on it or not, Loznitsa leaves that choice to the viewer in the end. But…