Sundance Review: ‘Three Minutes – A Lengthening’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There have been many films made about the Holocaust, and a great number of them focus on the horrors experienced within concentration camps. In addition to the millions of lives lost, there were also communities throughout Europe that were decimated, some of which have no survivors. Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes – A Lengthening examines a short reel of footage that was shot in 1938 in Poland and offers a window into a town and way of life that can never be truly known or recreated…

With just three minutes of film as springboard, the director Bianca Stigter worked with Glenn Kurtz, the grandson of the man who filmed the original footage while on a vacation to Europe and his hometown. They worked to determine where specifically it was shot and who might be identifiable within it. Those tasks prove arduous given that there are few people still living from that era with clear enough memories of the places they used to live. In many cases, not a single person was spared in a village or town when the Nazis arrived.

This is a powerful and compelling look at the impact of the Holocaust and the way in which the discovery of small morsels of information can be deeply meaningful and full of hope. It might be easy for some to watch the footage and not be piqued by curiosity, but for anyone who lost family members or does not know the full scope of their heritage, this concept is enduring. Three Minutes beautifully captures a miniscule piece of that feeling. For those who grew up hearing stories from survivor grandparents about what life was like before much of European Jewry was eradicated, this brief glimpse may well be comforting. B+

Three Minutes – a Lengthening is playing in the Spotlight section of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and will be distributed by NEON’s Super Ltd.

Comments

[Glenn Dunks]

Oh this sounds super interesting.