It can be extremely difficult to watch a film like Schindler's List that dramatically recreates the horrific events of the Holocaust. Those events were so inhuman that it's almost unbelievable yet awful to watch.
And then there's The Last Days -- a horrifying, troubling, but ultimately uplifting documentary that tells the story of the Holocaust in the words of Jewish Hungarian survivors, and with film footage shot mainly during the dying days of the Second World War.
The film begins with the survivors one by one telling their personal stories. These are five apparently strong and healthy older people, each of whom lived the horror of Nazi persecution. Much of the film focuses on the concentration camp experiences several of the survivors share. Their stories are intensely personal and deliver a powerful picture of the realities of their unbelievable experiences. Unbelievable, but believable, as these people are very real and their stories are undeniably truthful.
The film is composed of 'talking head' shots of the survivors, horrific footage from the concentration camps, and film of several of them returning to the camps and to their home towns for the first time in well over 50 years. They are mostly matter-of-fact in their presentation, even when describing the most inhuman of treatment. When emotion breaks through, this already-powerful documentary hits home even harder.
Rather than just dwelling on the terrible events of the 1940s, The Last Days shows us where several of the survivors are today. It's remarkable and reassuring to see how they have survived and found ways of dealing with their pain -- through art, political involvement or in other ways. It's heart-warming to see how some of them have gone on to have large families, doing their best to rebuild families that were devastated during the Holocaust. Present day scenes of young families at play add a hopeful element to what might otherwise have been an extremely depressing film.
While the story of the Holocaust is familiar subject matter for many viewers, you won't find a more complete or more effectively delivered version of the story anywhere. Is it a 'message' film? Certainly. Is it preachy? Not at all. There's no need for a film to preach when the story is as powerful as this one. The only preaching is the sermon you will be delivering to everyone you encounter after sitting through this painful and remarkable film.
