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Written by Loretta Beavers
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 22:41 |
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Buried Prayers was a rough film. While most films about the Holocaust are rough, this one is actually not finished yet. Mine was the second audience to see it-not even the witnesses or museum folk have seen as much as we have. Director, Steven Meyer, said that he likes using strangers for final adjustments to the film because they are not as over-critical as his friends and colleagues. He watches the audience during the film and learns from body language what needs to be tweaked. He jumped at the chance to show the film rough at Cinequest.
  The film itself is about the Maidanek death camp just outside Lublin, Poland. In amazing contrast to Nazi stereotype, this was not an efficiently run death camp. Over years of interviews with survivors, Israeli journalist, Yaron Svoray discerned from oblique references a common secret. Many captives were able to secretly bury their possessions in the field where they were held, in defiance to Nazi looting. What remains is a largely undiscovered trove of historical artifacts. The filmmakers followed the long process for beginning the archeological dig at the site, with a few of the survivors from the camp.
This film was chosen Best Documentary Feature at Cinequest 20. |
