Official Selection - Out of Competition 2008 / Zapomenuté transporty: Do Estonska / Czech Republic 2008
In September 1942 several dozen young Czech Jewish women were brought to Raasiku in Estonia where they were separated from their families and placed in a concentration camp. The third part of the documentary series Forgotten Transports maps out the fates of women who were able to show solidarity and mutual support for one another – teaching themselves to remain oblivious to the horrors of the Holocaust helped them to survive.
On 5 September 1942 a transport arrived in Estonia bearing one thousand Czech Jews. Roughly a hundred women between the ages of 19 and 25 were separated from their families who were taken by bus to another, apparently “heated” concentration camp. The terrified girls soon formed various groups in which they gave each other total support. With time they began to act together, like a single, large organism. The optimism and naivety of youth helped them to survive the harrowing journeys through a series of other camps in Estonia and later also in Germany. Their instinct for self-preservation urged them to ignore the Holocaust raging all around them. It was not until 5 September 1945, while they were convalescing in Sweden, that they discovered the truth about what happened to their families… Lukáš Přibyl spent seven years putting together his unique project about the little known fates of Czech Jews during the Holocaust. In this, the third part of the documentary series Forgotten Transports, he combines testimonies from survivors with shocking archive footage and documents, which together offer insight into the destiny of women in a “man’s” war.
85 min / Color, DIGIBETA
World premiere
Director Lukáš Přibyl
/ Screenplay Lukáš Přibyl
/ Dir. of Photography Jakub Šimůnek
/ Music Petr Ostrouchov
/ Editor Vladimír Barák
/ Producer Lukáš Přibyl, Ondřej Trojan
/ Production Total HelpArt T.H.A.
/ Contact Total HelpArt T.H.A., Menemsha Films, Inc. , Falcon a.s.
/ Distributor Falcon a.s.
www: www.zapomenutetransporty.cz
Lukáš Přibyl (b. 1973, Ostrava, CR) read political science, Judaic studies and history at Brandeis University and the CEU. He has published work on various aspects of the Holocaust and curated exhibitions at the Jewish Museum in Prague. Forgotten Transports – a series of four feature-length documentaries about virtually unknown concentration camps and the remarkable strategies the inmates used in order to survive – is his first film project.
Total HelpArt T.H.A.
Kříženeckého nám. 322, 152 53, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 267 073 007
Fax: +420 267 073 836
E-mail: [email protected]
Menemsha Films, Inc.
213 Rose Avenue, 2nd floor, CA 902 91, Venice
United States of America
Phone: +1 310 452 1775
Fax: +1 310 452 3740
E-mail: [email protected]
Falcon a.s.
Radlická 3185/1c, 150 00, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 422 222
E-mail: [email protected]
Daria Špačková
Producer
Lukáš Přibyl
Festival Organizer, Film Director, Producer
Vladimír Barák
Film Editor, Film Editor
Neil Friedman
Buyer
Svatava Peschková
Distributor
Ondřej Trojan
Festival Organizer, Film Director, Producer
Jakub Šimůnek
Director of Photography
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