In the summer of 1941, German troops began a series of mass executions in the Latvian coastal city of Liepāja. Over the course of several months, firing squads killed over 5,000 Jews there. A German soldier filmed one of these executions.
The footage surfaced after the War. These roughly 90 seconds of found footage, believed to be the only surviving film record of mass executions of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen, form the source material for this chilling film.
The filmmakers zoom in meticulously on details—the faces of the prisoners, a Nazi officer smiling with satisfaction—repeating and slowing down scenes from the brief 8mm film. Added sound makes the images feel even more vivid. The banality of evil reveals itself in everyday details: a bicycle casually propped against a sand dune, a dog running around playfully. This harrowing examination raises troubling questions. So many people are standing by and watching: who is a perpetrator, and who is a bystander? And what, ultimately, is our own role?
Stills
