A work of art can be so monumental that it swallows up the artist who created it. Such is the case with 1985’s “Shoah,” the eight-hour documentary about the Holocaust that has become the once and future calling card of French director Claude Lanzmann.
Lanzmann’s latest film is in ways an offshoot of “Shoah,” as it features a lengthy interview that Lanzmann did for “Shoah” back in 1979 that didn’t seem to fit into that mosaic of man’s inhumanity to man, in part because this is a story of luck and bravery, versus “Shoah’s” tale of barbarism and genocide.
“Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 P.M.” is about a successful Jewish uprising in the Sobibor concentration camp in Poland. By relating the incident, the film attempts to debunk the myth that all Jews acted like sheep as they were led to their deaths, while supporting the idea that those who knew what grisly fate awaited them were oftentimes quick to fight back as best they could.
The sole narrator of the film is Yehuda Lerner, a Jewish prisoner who played a role in the revolt. The film is basically a 90-minute monologue by Lerner, heard in part over images of the places he is referring to as they look today.
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“Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 P.M.” ((star)(star)(star) 1/2) opens Friday for one week only at Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave.; 773-281-9075.
