Austerlitz (2016 film)

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Austerlitz
Directed bySergei Loznitsa
Written bySergei Loznitsa
Release date
  • 7 September 2016 (2016-09-07) (Venice Film Festival)
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

Austerlitz is a 2016 German documentary film written and directed by Sergei Loznitsa. It premiered out of competition at the 73rd edition of the Venice Film Festival. It deals with the Holocaust by observing visitors at the Nazi concentration camps of Sachsenhausen and Dachau.[1][2][3] The title is a hint at W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz novel.[2]

Plot[edit]

The plot of the movie is a black-and-white footage of tourists on the territory of museum complexes, former concentration camps that function as museums (Dachau, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen and Dora-Mittelbau). The tape is shot in a webcam format with medium close-ups - the camera is fixed at chest height and camouflaged so that people don't pay attention to it. Each scene lasts at least 5 minutes, with almost no museum exhibits in the frame, German, English, French, Spanish, Italian speech is heard. In general, most of the tourists look at, look at, take pictures, that is, they behave normally, but there are scenes in which the behavior of visitors can be considered incorrect and disrespectful.

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

Austerlitz has an approval rating of 91% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 6.83/10.[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Neil Young (6 September 2016). "'American Anarchist': Venice Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  2. ^ a b Guy Lodge (15 September 2016). "Film Review: 'Austerlitz'". Variety. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
  3. ^ Nicolas Rapold (31 August 2016). "Sergei Loznitsa's Movie 'Austerlitz' Observes Tourists in Concentration Camps". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  4. ^ "Austerlitz (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes.

External links[edit]