1985 / documentary / France / 542’ / Color / status : completed / long feature-film
Edited over five years from 230 hours of footage, with virtually no archival images, SHOAH is regarded as one of the most significant works in the history of cinema. This essential historical and memorial film has been inscribed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register since 2023. A profound and unique experience for audiences, it is notably ranked #2 in the BFI’s list of the 50 greatest documentaries of all time.
After 12 years of research, Claude Lanzmann gives voice to the survivors and witnesses of the extermination camps to recount the unspeakable story of the Nazi genocide of European Jews during World War II. The film was so impactful that it lent its name to the event itself: the Shoah.
542’ & NEW APPROX 10x 52’ VERSION
2K FROM A 4K SCAN
The digital print of SHOAH was produced by Why Not Productions, with the support of the Foundation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah and CNC, as well as the participation of IFC Films and the Criterion Collection.
Winner of Flaherty Documentary Award at the BAFTA Awards
Winner of Honorary César at the César Awards
Press
“One of the greatest documentaries in the history of cinema.”
The New York Times
“When we see Claude Lanzmann’s extraordinary film today, we realize that we knew nothing.”
Simone de Beauvoir
“A movie of exemplary modernism, an advanced, existential cinema of the highest order.”
The New Yorker
“An indelible mark on the history of cinema.”
The Washington Post
“Why revisit SHOAH? Because it matters more [today], just as it will matter even more in a hundred years, and 200, and a thousand.”
The Boston Globe
“Perhaps the most important piece of historical cinema we possess.”
Times
“Claude Lanzmann has accomplished the seemingly impossible: He has brought such beauty to his recounting of the horror of the Holocaust that he has made it accessible and comprehensible.”
Los Angeles Times