Sharon Waxman on her blog WaxWord:
In a French-themed café a block from the teeming beach, producer Noemi Schory explained why her new Holocaust documentary, “An Unfinished Film,” did not deserve the R rating that the MPAA handed down last week after a final appeal.
Yes, she said, the film has shocking images: corpses on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto, starving children, a mass grave. And some nudity: naked men, and then women, entering a ritual bath.
It is a harsh film, even a brutal one. But it is also an historical document that until now has been unseen by the public, and whose purpose remains a mystery.
“I am upset about (the rating) theoretically, and practically this will create difficulties,” she said, ignoring an iced lemonade. “It puts up another obstacle to seeing it. “
With whichever rating, ‘An Unfinished Film’ is not a typical Holocaust documentary. Instead it investigates a mysterious Nazi movie production, a 30-day shoot inside the Warsaw Ghetto conducted by three Nazi film crews, shortly before it was liquidated in 1942.
The film is far too elaborate to have been a mere newsreel propaganda exercise.
There were many staged scenes of “wealthy” Jews living opulently inside the ghetto, juxtaposed with the degradation of the poor Jews there dying of starvation and disease…
[continues at WaxWord]
