Shoah: Four Sisters originally aired on French TV in 2018. Late last year, the four hour plus cut was delivered to the very extreme fringe of American arthouse cinemas. It’s a shame, as this is the kind of documentary that should be taught in schools.
It’s weird to think that a sequel to Shoah exists, but damn if it doesn’t work. Serving as Claude Lanzmann’s last film, the movie tries to show that people managed to survive after the Holocaust. Focusing on four young women, we see that it’s nearly impossible to shake the weight of great tragedy. The format saved from the original film feels familiar.
However, getting super personal in the female survivors’ stories was stunning. These are the kinds of Cohen releases that make me love this company. Hopefully they can keep existing to release the kind of films that fall between the cracks at outlets like Criterion.
