KZ | Review

Doc asks if it is better to remember or more profitable to forget?

One doesn’t question the reasons in wanting to visit Euro Disney, but when it comes to visiting places like Austria’s WWII concentration camp located at Mauthausen – the possible answers are as varied as the recollections of the people who live around it. Using interview and cinema verite docu techniques, director Rex Bloomstein explores the nature of why people visit such places and exposes the disregard for victims who will never truly rest in peace.

There are tons of documentaries that treat the subject of the atrocities of the concentration camps, but KZ Sundance World Doc selection looks at the notion of concentration camps from a more contemporary angle. Nestled in the colorful flowered countryside, through the POV of the tourist, tourist guides and near by residents, the probing documentary queries those who may have never bothered to truly question – what significance does such a place hold in the long term recollection? The answer is not that surprising when the tourist dollar, or in this case euro is part of the equation.

Bloomstein and second unit director Joern Meyer interview everyone from school children having a difficult time fathoming what kind of horrors occurred in the place where their very shoes are standing, to a tour guide who has become an alcoholic after recounting the many horrors one time too many to some tourists who take pictures with a “I was Here” pose next to what was a working human oven. The town’s people aren’t any better, fast food joints with the golden arches feed bus-loads full of tourists, and local restaurants proudly sing jolly songs that reference the site.

What is most surprising is that unlike the hundreds of docs on the holocaust, this film uses absolutely no war footage – the many first person interviews with the towns’ people assure that the collective memory is more horrifying than whatever historical film reel can depict. Beyond specialized television chains broadcasting the doc, there are not much commercial prospects to for the film; however those who do come across it will find it is more profound than expected.

January 25 – Sundance 2006.

Rating 3 stars