Film Education - Resources, Training, Events

Cabaret (Cert. 15) is set in 1931 Berlin, and is loosely based on the Broadway musical Cabaret by Kander and Ebb. The Broadway musical was itself adapted from The Berlin Stories of
Christopher Isherwood and the play I am a Camera. Isherwood lived in Berlin during the late 1920s and early 1930s and was witness to the rise of the Nazi Party. He was very involved in the adaptation of his works for the stage.

Defiance (Cert. 15,) is set during the Nazi occupation of Belarus and is based on the true story of the Bielski partisans led by three Jewish brothers. The film was an adaptation of Nechama Tec’s book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. This film is a useful depiction of the actions of the Bielski Partisans and is also interesting in showing the challenges of living in the forest as partisan fighters.

Fateless (Cert. 12A) is based on a semi-autobiographical novel. It is a Hungarian film that tells the story of Gyurka, a 15-year old boy who is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald and Zeitz concentration camps. This film is useful to challenge students’ perceptions of what ghettos were like. In the film Gyurka is confined to a ghetto which is a converted brickworks.

Good (Cert. PG) is based on the stage play of the same name by British playwright C.P. Taylor. The film explores how a liberal professor, Halder who becomes involved in the Nazi war and killing machine as a result of his moral cowardice and corruption. Halder still sees himself as a 'good man' despite his involvement with the Nazis.

Into the Arms of Strangers (Cert. PG) is a documentary based on testimony and archive footage that tells the story of the 10,000 unaccompanied children who came to the United Kingdom on the Kindertransport of 1938-39. The film tells their story from the rise of the Nazi party, through the discriminatory laws and events of Kristallnacht to their departure for the UK and their lives here.

Judgement at Nuremberg (Cert. PG) was inspired by the Jurists’ Trial that took place before the International Military Tribunal after the end of the war. A central element of the film involves a fictionalised legal case called the Feldenstein case, which was based on the real-life Katzenberger Trial in 1942.

Night and Fog (Cert. PG) is a French documentary film that focuses on the camp system under the Nazis. Made just 10 years after the liberation of the camps, it uses both colour footage shot in 1955 with black and white footage and stills taken during the Third Reich. It was made in collaboration with two Holocaust survivors and received overwhelmingly positive reviews on its release. It did however also cause some controversy through its depiction of a French police officer guarding Pithiviers Transit Camp.

Schindler’s List (Cert. 15) is based on the novel Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally. Inspired by a true story, it tells the story of German businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved the lives of more than 1,000 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz.

Shoah (Cert. PG) is a 9 1⁄2 hour documentary film made by Claude Lanzmann. The film does not use any archive footage, but is based solely on the testimony of survivors, eye-witnesses and perpetrators of the Holocaust. This testimony is often coupled with contemporary footage of the sites and locations under discussion. The film contains testimony from well-known figures such as Jan Karski and Rudollf Vrba, as well as other lesser-known figures.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Cert. 12A) is based on the novel of the same name by John Boyne, and tells the story of Bruno, the 9-year old son of a high ranking Nazi and his relationship with Shmuel, a 9-year old Jewish camp inmate. Their story, described at the start of the novel by Boyne as a ‘fable’, is set against the backdrop of life under the Nazi regime.

The Counterfeiters (Cert. 15) based on
Adolf Burger’s true story The Devil’s Workshop, is about a secret Nazi plan codenamed Operation Bernhard. The plan was to destabilise the UK and US economies by flooding them with forged currency. The operation, which began at Sachsenhausen concentration camp, involved a group of prisoners, who were expert forgers and printers, producing millions of fake notes.

The Pianist (Cert. 15) is adapted from the autiobiography by the Polish musician
Władysław Szpilman. It tells the story of Szpilman’s experiences from the invasion of Poland in September 1939; his time living in the Warsaw Ghetto and the deportation of his family; his escape from the Ghetto and his time in hiding, including his rescue by a German Army Officer. In the opening sequences of the film, Szpilman and his family react to the imposition of various anti-Jewish laws.