I thought that the cinematography was excellent, with the slow pace of the film seeming appropriate and the acting was superb, especially that of the father and daughter.

“Reading some of the reviews left by people on IMDb, I thought the one which starts with the following:

I believe everyone who watched this movie was shocked by the ending. At first, I couldn’t understand it at all, and I thought it might be lacking explanation. However, as I began to connect the various clues within the movie, I realized that it leads to a compelling interpretation. I believe this movie can be interpreted in various ways, but I’d like to share my interpretation here…….”

was well worth reading and considering and it certainly helped me personally unpick something of what we experienced last night.

An extraordinary film, which ‘said’ so much, without having to ‘say it’!

Wonderful acting, magnificent direction and quite one of the best films we’ve seen since joining, despite being such a brutal watch. Reading up on how it was based on real characters, makes it even more relevant, especially in today’s political climate in so many countries – ours included!

Thank you for choosing it, though we’re very relieved that all the films are not like this….

An ‘excellent’ from me, certainly!

It was certainly one of the best documentaries that I have seen and I found it deeply moving. There were so many layers to it: 1) Anita Lasker’s enormous strength and her ability to tell things as they were (in all senses), alongside Hans Jurgen Hoss being almost ‘made’ by his son Kai to face the reality of his father’s actions (alongside his sister, Brigitte, in America), 2) the post war effects on the families, both the Laskers and the Hoss’s, 3) the coming together of both families to confront their shared, but very different history.

I felt that this film would hit home to a larger range of age groups than the Zone of Interest, which was dependent on the audience having a detailed historical knowledge of the Holocaust, in order to highlight the juxtaposition of the Hoss lifestyle, alongside the barely imaginable horrors that were taking place just across the walls of Auschwitz.

It was fascinating to experience Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s deep awareness that the human capacity for genocide is ever-present, as evidenced post WW2 in countless countries, and therefore the need to speak out at the earliest stages possible against discrimination, be it based on religion, race, gender or nationality. In her 100th year, it must be very hard for her to have to question whether we learned anything from the Holocaust.

P.S. Reading up about the family, the Lasker-Wallfisch’s musical pedigree is quite extraordinary, both going back several generations and forward via her son and now his children….

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to see these films.

Etero’s silent nature, worked very well for a sub-titled film, allowing the camera to tell the story much of the time and a magnificent, understated performance by Eka Chavleishvili.

It was a window into what one imagines rural life in many Eastern European countries to be like or, for that matter, rural communities throughout the world. Beautiful countryside too and it made our rain seem like drizzle….

A great choice of film.