Primo

As a concentration camp survivor I can confirm the factual accuracy of Primo's depiction of camp life under the Nazis. This production however is much more than that, it is also a reaffirmation of the ultimate supremacy of humanity at its best, over the banality of evil at its worst.

I thought that I'll be bored listening to a monologue lasting close to 90 minutes. Far from it! It is moving and riveting from beginning to end. Furthermore, it is more than a monologue. Simple but powerful special effects and gorgeous cello music accompaniment rounds out Anthony Sher's superb acting as Primo Levi, our raconteur from hell.

A testimony. About Nazi camp, human pain, a world, a life. A monologue. A surviver.And his story. A monologue. Confession, descriptions, memories, fight against shadows. Lesson about basic values. A delicate and powerful manifesto. A dialog about the existence more than accident.It is more than adaptation of Primo Levy's books. It is more than a slice of Shoah. It is a sea of silence. A wall. Ash and flesh as parts of a huge wall. Food for strong belly, the movie is , in same measure, a homage and moral thorn. In fact, it is picture of our society. Small details, large heavy traces. A man. As shadow of many others. A film behind definitions. A "Mementi mori" or only mirror. Nothing complicated. Every - warm. Words, faces, gestures, pain. And a man talking. About the humanity as sense of life.

after the reading of the books of Primo Levi, the film becomes a sort of link between the words and the images from your memories. a testimony. or, more precise, a sort of touch of the air and the things and the people of Auschwitz. it is a state who escapes from each define ambition. because you understand. not exactly a tragedy but its spirit. not a life but the small things giving the status of survive. it is not a comfortable film because the confession is far to be the expected one. it has the gift to be a travel in time. because you fell . everything. because the Shoah becomes more than a page of history book. because you are not only a viewer from public but a part of the tragedy who has not the right words to describe it. Primo is an experience. and this fact is the only important about it.

I was reluctant to watch this, having read the book about 10 years ago and vividly remembering all the horrible details. When I finally took the time to watch it, it took me some time to get used to the fact that this is not a film in the traditional sense. It feels a lot more like a play, a monologue delivered on a very stage-like set. But this for me is also the strong point of this film. With the simplest of means the grey, hopeless feel of a death camp is created; grey walls, doorways, a wooden chair, a table, light and sound. Antony Sher moves solemnly through these sets and somehow, through the magic of his acting, the whole of Auschwitz comes alive (a strange phrase for such an utterly dead place, but you know what I mean). You can almost feel the cold, the despair, the death, the hunger. This certainly does not make for easy viewing, least of all because Mr. Sher is often looking directly at you while delivering this horrible tale. Still this film, like the book, carries a very strong message: never again.

There was also a film made of Primo Levi's second book, The Truce, about his journey home to Italy. I was less impressed with that one but it may be worth watching after this, one to get a sense of the aftermath of the war for the survivors.