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#The Story

Director's Note & Synopsis

#director's note

Sometimes I am asked, “Another documentary about the Holocaust?” Spontaneously, the image of our world today comes to mind. A number of leaders have won elections, or are currently in power, with far-right politics that directly target human rights and democratic values. What is worse is that these ideologies enchant large parts of society. If we look to the past, only a few decades ago, we can clearly see the disastrous consequences for humanity. I therefore conclude that much more still needs to be said about Auschwitz—as a constant reminder to societies of where far-right ideology ultimately leads.

Another question often I’m asked is how this documentary differs from those that already exist. My goal, and that of Renée Revah, is not to rely on archival footage or to repeat what we have already seen in previous documentaries and films. The documentary focuses on Renée living with the inherited trauma of the Holocaust and her decision, through the art of photography, to confront it at the very place where it was created. Through an imagined mental correspondence with her grandfather, it is as if she takes him by the hand and, together with him—and with us—guides us through the places where his people were murdered in the most inhuman way.

Of course the narrative centers on a personal story: that of Renée’s grandfather, Albert Revah, and her ancestors—a single human point within the vast history of the Holocaust at Auschwitz and Birkenau, where 1,200,000 people were murdered.

Through the documentary, and through Renée’s use of the camera as a tool, we collectively capture Auschwitz as it exists today. Yet the image does not merely record the present; it also brings memories, sounds, and thoughts to the surface, while simultaneously acting as a wake-up call for the future. It places us inside a time capsule where we see the past—and, if we remain complacent, a possible future as well.

I must confess that what I found most fascinating and inspiring is Renée’s courage and strength to look the monster in the eye, to plunge into the abyss of the soul, and to overcome the fears and suffering it generates—even across generations. This stands as one of the key messages of the documentary.

Last but not least, this film is an act of remembrance, but also a prayer for healing; because only if we acknowledge trauma and give it space to be transformed and healed can we break the cycle of violence and allow life to flourish.

#synopsis

Renée Revah is a successful photographer in Greece, feeling tormented though by a trauma; what scientists call as “genealogical”. All her Jewish ancestors, except her grandfather, who hid in Athens during the German invasion, were loaded on death trains in March 1943, in Thessaloniki, and taken to the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, where they were exterminated by the Nazis.

When Renée was a child, she used to stare for hours at a family photo from a time when all her ancestors posed happily and unaware of the horrible end that awaited them. She would hear the stories from her father, who in turn had heard them from his.

Renée makes the decision to deal with this genealogical trauma and visit the place of its creation; the two death camps, where one million 2 hundred thousand people died. The majority of the victims were coreligionist Jews.

Taking black and white photographs, Renée follows the path of her ancestors from the trains of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz and Birkenau. She mentally converses with her grandfather who is no longer alive and died before she was born.

In her mind swirls a phrase of Eva Mozes Kor who survived while being a guinea pig at the hands of Josef Mengele in the Auschwitz camp: “I believe with every fiber of my being that every human being has the right to live without the pain of the past.”

The documentary follows Renée as she tries to heal her genealogical trauma and focuses narratively on four points.

The first narrative element
The first narrative element is Renée’s mental correspondence with her grandfather, who never wanted to visit the places where all his loved ones perished. As Renée crosses the camps alone, she conveys images, feelings, and thoughts to him, and asks questions that sometimes are answered and other times are not. “Tell me,” Renée wonders as she walks through the beautiful nature surrounding the two camps, “how can beauty and death have the same face?”
The second element
The second element is Renée’s powerful photographs of the outer landscape and interior buildings of the camps. Her lens – and the lens of the documentary – depict the beauty and serenity of nature that coexist with the horrific incidences that took place in the camps.
The third narrative element
The third narrative element is her great-grandmother’s knitted transparent fabric, found in a trunk. This fabric becomes the connection between the past and the present. Renée carries it inside the wagon that left from Thessaloniki, then takes it to the camps, where we finally watch it swirl in the depths of the Vistula River, where the Nazis scattered the ashes of their victims.
The fourth narrative element
Finally, the fourth narrative element symbolizes man’s perpetual struggle to find his freedom: the colorful bird trapped in one of the women’s chambers, persistently tries to free itself... It flies, hits the window glass and retreats. The bird recovers its strength and repeats the effort, which looks like it is going to last forever. It makes many attempts, until at some point it finds an escape route and flies to freedom.