US PREMIERE
Shown with Short Film - Alina
Q&A 2/4 - with Rabbi Dr. Leon Weissberg and Producer Michael Kagan
The words of a long-lost diary crying out to be heard. The film moves from dramatic narration of the diarist’s descent into hell to interviews with the daughter of the diary’s saviour; from a desperate search for Berkovitch’s fate to a man who witnessed the liquidation of the ghetto; from the archives in Warsaw to actors performing a play on the site of the ghetto from which the diary was written. And what of his call for revenge? The film tackles this delicate subject through the eyes of a Nazi hunter, a psychologist, and grandson of a survivor.
Director Biography - Iouri GOROULEV
Iouri GOROULEV graduated from the film-engineering department of the Leningrad film engineers institute in 1971, from the camera department of the Moscow cinema institute in 1982. Since 1975 he works at the "Belarusfilm" state studio: a cameraman at first, now a director & cameraman. Owner of a private studio "STOPSHOT”, produces the documentaries there. As a cameraman: over 100 documentaries on culture, history, arts and religion issues. As a director-cameraman: some 40 films.
Iouri Goroulev is the organizer and chairman of the International Festival of Christian Films and Television Programme Magnificat. In 2006, he was awarded the State Prize of the President of the Republic Belarus "For Spiritual Revival".
Director Statement
The subject of the holocaust has always fascinated and frightened me. I am a Belorussian Catholic whose father was Jewish. He fought in the Red Army. So I grew up in-between worlds. So this exploration into a diary written by a Jew and saved by a Catholic is almost my own story - I am both this and that. Furthermore as a God-fearing person I have always wondered about the core of the human being - what happens when all constraints are released. The Berkovitch Diary describes what happens when the most cultured nation of the Western World is allowed to express the inner animal (or worse) without restriction on a population that did very little to resist. The bestiality described is beyond anything we can imagine. Finally as a Catholic I wish to do my little bit to atone for the sins of my ancestors and to bring Berkovitch's tragic legacy to light.
- Year2019
- Runtime64 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryBelarus | Israel | Poland
- PremiereUS
- DirectorYuri Goroulev
US PREMIERE
Shown with Short Film - Alina
Q&A 2/4 - with Rabbi Dr. Leon Weissberg and Producer Michael Kagan
The words of a long-lost diary crying out to be heard. The film moves from dramatic narration of the diarist’s descent into hell to interviews with the daughter of the diary’s saviour; from a desperate search for Berkovitch’s fate to a man who witnessed the liquidation of the ghetto; from the archives in Warsaw to actors performing a play on the site of the ghetto from which the diary was written. And what of his call for revenge? The film tackles this delicate subject through the eyes of a Nazi hunter, a psychologist, and grandson of a survivor.
Director Biography - Iouri GOROULEV
Iouri GOROULEV graduated from the film-engineering department of the Leningrad film engineers institute in 1971, from the camera department of the Moscow cinema institute in 1982. Since 1975 he works at the "Belarusfilm" state studio: a cameraman at first, now a director & cameraman. Owner of a private studio "STOPSHOT”, produces the documentaries there. As a cameraman: over 100 documentaries on culture, history, arts and religion issues. As a director-cameraman: some 40 films.
Iouri Goroulev is the organizer and chairman of the International Festival of Christian Films and Television Programme Magnificat. In 2006, he was awarded the State Prize of the President of the Republic Belarus "For Spiritual Revival".
Director Statement
The subject of the holocaust has always fascinated and frightened me. I am a Belorussian Catholic whose father was Jewish. He fought in the Red Army. So I grew up in-between worlds. So this exploration into a diary written by a Jew and saved by a Catholic is almost my own story - I am both this and that. Furthermore as a God-fearing person I have always wondered about the core of the human being - what happens when all constraints are released. The Berkovitch Diary describes what happens when the most cultured nation of the Western World is allowed to express the inner animal (or worse) without restriction on a population that did very little to resist. The bestiality described is beyond anything we can imagine. Finally as a Catholic I wish to do my little bit to atone for the sins of my ancestors and to bring Berkovitch's tragic legacy to light.
- Year2019
- Runtime64 minutes
- LanguageEnglish
- CountryBelarus | Israel | Poland
- PremiereUS
- DirectorYuri Goroulev
