Destination Unknown (2017)

Review

81min

Genre:      Documentary

Director:   Claire Ferguson

Cast:        Ed Mosberg, Helen Sternlicht, Frank Blaichman…and more

Writer:     Jonathan Key

-Synopsis-

Twelve Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust recount their harrowing and disparate experiences of the ‘Third Reich’s’ cruelty, as director Claire Ferguson combines extraordinary archival footage with deeply personal testimony, painting a moving portrait of unshakable grief and loss while letting the people who suffered it bear witness to one of the greatest crimes in recent human history.

There’s been no shortage of powerful drama about the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust on film and TV over the last seventy years or so, but none of it as cutting and poignant as the actual accounts from the people who endured the horrors themselves.

Now for her directorial debut, editor-turned-director Ferguson joins producer Llion Roberts in putting together survivor testimonies with pictures, documents and video footage, combining it with our own memories of the movies and other memorable documentaries on the subject to craft an affecting piece—chronicling a painful legacy which still lingers and a warning about the darkest recesses of humanity, while offering a glimmer of hope . . . for the survivors and all of us who will continue to shape this world.

The film’s title itself refers to the fate of the Jews from all over Poland, as they were taken from their towns and enforced ghettos 1942 and put on trains, to where?, no one outside the SS knew, but would later be revealed as notorious places like Treblinka, Plaszow and Auschwitz-Birkenau, and some lesser known names like Mauthausen. All forced labour sites and death camps which would come to represent true evil on Earth, and well into the 20th century no less.

Like all faithful depictions of the Holocaust and its lingering effect, including both dramatic and factual and from Claude Lanzmann’s seminal 1985 documentary ‘Shoah’ onwards, ‘Destination Unknown’ gives the platform to the survivors who vividly recount their diverse experiences which remain clear as day. From harrowing accounts of life (and death) in the concentration camps, to lucky escapes and being given safe harbour by fellow Poles, and the armed partisan resistance fight-back—carefully painting a painful portrait of the heavy burden of these experiences on them and those around them for generations to come.

Several of the accounts here are made even more personal because they overlap with stories and people we’ve become familiar with over the years of depictions of the Nazi horrors committed during World War II. Including some of the people saved by Oskar Schindler and depicted in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece, plus the notorious Plaszow labour camp and its sadistic commander Amon Göth, who lived like a king at his court of misery on the back of the Jews suffering for his fiefdom.

Director Ferguson expertly blends together the many interviews and interlaced accounts with archival footage from the time as well as family videos and photos of the survivors’ lives in the subsequent years, and cleverly relies on an evocative, melancholy and poignant classical string score from composer Andrew Skeet—featuring traditional Jewish strings and orchestral pieces, and tinged with a tangible lament.

Like any worthy account of genocide should do, ‘Destination Unknown’ serves to bear witness to the horrific events of recent history—keeping them in sight and therefore in mind—directly from the mouths of those who suffered them and for the short time they have left on this earth. It also tries to put across the unshakable and devastating effect that those who were lucky enough to survive will carry forever, proving that even after liberation, seventy years and a full lifetime later, none of them will ever be truly free.

This may not be the first documentary you’ve seen about the Holocaust or the systematic and industrial evil perpetrated by the Nazis—something not seen before in the many genocides of recent human history—but it’s still an affecting and eye-opening testimonial, even for those who’ve seen their fair share. Leaving us with a measure of hope when showing the generations of Jews who’ve been procreated by the survivors, the ultimate rebuttal of Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’.

The Bottom Line . . .

A poignant, captivating and sobering portrait of suffering and survival, ‘Destination Unknown’ is a powerful testimony about the horrors of the Holocaust which will move even those who are familiar with and educated on the subject. Director Claire Ferguson’s blend of moving and frank testimony with archival footage is effective and expertly put together, resulting in a affecting account which serves to both bear witness to the inhumanity of Nazi crimes against humanity, and illustrate the lifetime of suffering which even those who somehow survived had to endure.

Out in UK cinemas from the 16th June

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Three Days In Auschwitz (2015)

In an effort to come to terms with the devastating personal effects of the Holocaust on his family, artist and filmmaker Philippe Mora chronicles his trips to Auschwitz concentration camp and weaves together a stylish personal portrait of the ongoing legacy of the Third Reich’s atrocities in 1940s Europe.

Directed by Philippe Mora and starring Philippe Mora and Mirka Mora among others.

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