KZ

DOCUMENTARY, UK, 2005, 98 minutes; in German with English subtitles

Director: Rex Bloomstein
Producer: Tony Tabatznik

The picturesque Austrian town of Mauthausen was the site of a concentration camp to which the Nazis shipped Eastern Europeans, homosexuals, and American POWs; in last year of the war, it became a death camp for Jews. Now, it is a tourist destination. British documentarian Rex Bloomstein focuses on the people who today cross paths there. Despite the many international tour groups of teenagers and adults who come to confront a horrific history, most of the residents – both newcomers and those who lived in Mauthausen during the war – are practiced in denial and compartmentalization. On the other hand, the Austrian tours guides, some of whom have chosen the job of recounting atrocities in lieu of military service, are clearly tortured by what they’ve come to know. KZ is about how we, in present, respond to the horror of this historic massive extermination. (Amy Taubin)

· 2006 Sundance Film Festival: Nominated, Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary

Diana Holtzberg is an executive with the distribution company Films Transit, which concentrates on documentaries. In 2003, she served as Executive Producer on END OF THE CENTURY: THE STORY OF THE RAMONES and in 2004, IMAGINARY WITNESS: Hollywood And The Holocaust.