Directed by Yael Hersonski, Produced by Noemi Schory, Itay Ken-tor

90 min., English, Hebrew, German, Polish and Yiddish with English subtitles, Israel/Germany 2010

This is the story of a film that was never completed, a rough first draft of the longest Nazi propaganda film ever shot inside the Warsaw Ghetto. Shortly before the major deportation from the ghetto, a large professional film crew was sent inside to juxtapose meticulously staged scenes of Jews enjoying a life of luxury in the ghetto with images of hunger disease and death that required no staging at all.

Ironically after the war, filmmakers and museums seeking to show “what ­ really happened” used fragments of this film as credible evidence. Although the cinematic deception was forgotten, the black and white images remained engraved in memory as historical truth.

The soundtrack of A Film Unfinished is provided by eye witnesses who saw the filming, secret diaries kept by the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto, weekly reports of the SS Komissar, and the protocol of the interrogation of one of the cameramen.

These testimonies reveal the cynical filming methods and change our perception of these scenes, forcing us to think twice before mindlessly adopting the illustrations provided by archival footage.

Jerusalem Fil Festival - Van Leer Documentary Award and the Forum for the Preservation of Audio-Visual Memory Award

Sundance Film Festival - Best Editing Award

Silverdocs Festival - WGA Documentary Screenplay Award

Berlin Film Festival

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Hot Docs 2010 - Best International Feature Award

Planete Doc Review

Jerusalem Film Festival

Melbourne International Film Festival