Kz (2006)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Rex Bloomstein

Release Date:

4 May 2006 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The residents of Mauthausen, Austria come to terms with its dark history as a former site of a German concentration camp. |

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Runtime:

UK:97 min

Country:

UK

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:12A

Good treatment of a bad subject

Most of the message in Kz comes between the lines; in the expressions on people's faces, in their postures while they are touring the concentration camp. That's as it should be.

This documentary on the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria is excellent for it's view not only of what it was, but how people feel about it now. Everyone from those who would forget the past to those who feel a national or personal guilt is interviewed. Much of the footage is from tours of the complex, with a focus on the guides and the tourists rather than the buildings. That is a unique and interesting viewpoint which provides more information than a simple history lesson.

Two of the guides, in particular, are excellent in their commitment. You can see they take the job seriously and really want to get the horror of the whole thing across to the tourists; they do that, and well.

This is a documentary that does something new with the whole Holocaust subject; not just a horrified look into the past, but a look at how it's being seen now, and how it might be seen in the future. Watch it.