History Film Series

19 February 2013, Come and See, 7:00, BAL 2066
 
Come and See, directed by Elem Klimov (1985), shows the experience of a sixteen-year-old boy who turns to the woods and joins the partisans in opposition to the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.  (Professor Jersild).
 
9 November 2012, Fateless, 5:30, Constant 1002
 
Fateless premiered in 2005 and was directed by Lajos Koltai based on a book and screenplay by Imre Kertesz.  Fateless confronts us with the Holocaust in Hungary by telling the story of a teenaged boy, Gyuri, who ends up in Auschwitz but is unable to adjust to his return to Budapest after the liberation.  The film won numerous awards when it opened and received excellent reviews.  Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian notes, "Fateless asks questions of what survival means, whether it confers not merely guilt but also existential bewilderment, a sense of being historically undead: a living, breathing anomaly. Gyuri is a witness to something whose horror consists in universal destruction, and he is feeling the burden of bearing witness as Koltai shows that Holocaust-denial or at least skepticism is already well underway. Is the survivor entitled to ordinary human happiness - or is this human emotion an act of disloyalty and diminution? These questions are a vital part of this outstanding film's dark and sombre power."  (Professor Finley-Croswhite).
 
10 April 2012, Titanic, 7:20, Bal 1012 (on the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of the loss of RMS TITANIC)
 
Titanic, directed by Herbert Selpin, is a 1943 German Nazi propaganda movie produced by Tobis Film for UFA. The movie uses the story of the loss of RMS TITANIC for a Nazi take on British capitalism and how fictional scrupulous economic activities of shipping moguls finally caused the loss of RMS TITANIC. The movie was banned in Germany due to the scenes of mass panic and only screened for Nazi military audiences in occupied Europe.  Only in 2005 the movie was restored and the complete and uncensored version shown.  (Professor Heidbrink).