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I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was directed by Sam Mendes, I was quite eager to check it out. I suspected what kind of documentary it would be and the end-result was indeed quite shattering. It did remind me a bit of ‘San Pietro’, a short movie made by John Huston during WWII and, to be honest, with both movies, it was rather jarring to follow at the same time the narration and the images which sometimes didn’t match. It was especially the case with ‘San Pietro’ and, for this movie, I did wish the narration would just stop at some point. In this case, I did struggle to focus on the narration and the images at the same time which was a pity since they were both so fascinating and heart-breaking. However, in contrary to ‘San Pietro’, very often, what they were talking about and what they were showing did match and the end-result was, in my opinion, pretty mind-blowing. The fact they still had the testimonies of these men who were actually there at the time is just so valuable and I was also amazed by how thoughtful their insights were. I mean, at the end of the day, there were just some regular soldiers who just stumbled on this nightmare. In spite of some rumors circulating at the time, they certainly didn’t expect to come across anything like this (even the German soldiers told them that it was a camp for ‘political’ prisoners...) and I can’t imagine how it must have felt to set your eyes on such horrors. I also believe that such documentaries are still incredibly invaluable, even 80 years after WWII ended, considering the current rise of the extreme right through most of Europe. The marsh of British Nazis was also such a chilling sight but it was a good reminder that, even though we all blamed the Germans at the time, so many people across Europe actually did share the same ideas and values after all. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie maybe didn’t show anything new, it still touched me very deeply and I think it is definitely worth a look.
8/10
