The Last of the Unjust (2014)
90%RT Audience Score: 83%
Awards & Nominations: 3 nominations
Documentarian Claude Lanzmann brings the ghosts of the Holocaust back to vivid life once again The Last of the Unjust, a dense and haunting investigation into complicity and moral quandary.
The Last of the Unjust is a documentary that will leave you haunted and questioning everything you thought you knew about the Holocaust. Director Claude Lanzmann’s use of unused footage from a 1975 interview with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last surviving member of the Jewish Council installed by the Nazis, is both fascinating and heart-wrenching. At times, the film may feel overlong and detailed, but it’s worth it to fully understand the truth. Plus, who doesn’t love a good moral and aesthetic question that can’t be answered?
Production Company(ies)
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions,
Distributor
NA
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Terezin, Czech Republic
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for some thematic material
Year of Release
2013
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:NA
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Language(s):German, French, English
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Country of origin:Austria, France
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Release date:Release Date (Streaming): Sep 30, 2014
Genre(s)
Documentary/Biography
Keyword(s)
documentary, biography, Holocaust, World War II, Jewish elder, Adolf Eichmann, moral quandary, complicity, Claude Lanzmann, directed by Claude Lanzmann, written by Claude Lanzmann, produced by David Frenkel, Danny Krausz, Jean Labadie, Kurt Stocker, Benjamin Murmelstein, reviewed by J Hoberman, Mark Kermode, Geoffrey Macnab, Wendy Ide, Peter Bradshaw, David Parkinson, D.W Mault, Daniel Kasman, Christoph Huber, Michael Atkinson, Rich Cline, PG-13, $38.4K box office, 96% Tomatometer, 79% audience score, German, streaming, rent/buy, documentary film, historical, war, genocide, survivor, Jewish council, Theresienstadt, Rome, Viennese rabbi, unused footage, haunting, dense, moving, compassionate, unsentimental, truth, questions, moral, aesthetic, Shoah, follow-up, interview footage, Austrian, Jewish Elders, Nazis, Jewish ghettos
Worldwide gross: $63,136
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $80,205
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 3,048
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 8,746
US/Canada gross: $40,563
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $51,529
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,751
US/Canada opening weekend: $14,328
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $18,202
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,544
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): 2500000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $3,175,870
Production budget ranking: 1,971
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $1,710,206
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$4,805,871
ROI to date (est.): -98%
ROI ranking: 2,011
Claude Lanzmann – Self, Director, Writer
David Frenkel – Producer
Danny Krausz – Producer
Director(s)
Claude Lanzmann
Writer(s)
Claude Lanzmann
Producer(s)
David Frenkel, Danny Krausz, Jean Labadie, Kurt Stocker
Film Festivals
Cannes, Toronto
Awards & Nominations
3 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (48) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (2)
The best one can say for this troubling, if intermittently fascinating, mess is that it succeeds in raising questions, moral as well as aesthetic, that it cannot answer.
December 31, 2015
J. Hoberman
Tablet
TOP CRITIC
Each viewer will judge its truth for themselves, but the director’s compassionately unsentimental acceptance is clear and profound.
January 11, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
Mark Kermode
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
This is a complex and very moving documentary.
January 9, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
Geoffrey Macnab
Independent (UK)
TOP CRITIC
The Last of the Unjust is cinema at its very best.
January 9, 2015 | Rating: 5/5
Wendy Ide
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Haunted and haunting.
January 8, 2015 | Rating: 5/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
The 89 year-old director has lost none of his bold inquisitiveness in a Shoah follow-up that plunges the viewer deep into the hustle and anguish of the Czech ghetto.
January 8, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
The running time (like all Lanzmann’s films) is not oppressive but allows for Murmelstein and his interlocutor to talk through, around and inside the context and reality of pragmatism, egoism, heroism and evil.
April 4, 2019 | Rating: 5/5
D.W. Mault
CineVue
Claude Lanzmann has created a new film whose heart is the interview footage shot for his monumental “Shoah” project of Austrian Benjamin Murmelstein, the so-called last of the Jewish Elders, those nominally in charge of the Nazis’ Jewish ghettos.
November 16, 2017
Daniel Kasman
MUBI
The Last of the Unjust breaks with the rigorous approach its director previously employed to find a just way to talk about the Nazis’ mass murder of the Jews with film.
October 2, 2017
Christoph Huber
Cinema Scope
To some degree, the force of The Last of the Unjust is delivered in spite of Lanzmann’s laxness as a filmmaker.
April 12, 2016
Michael Atkinson
In These Times
At three and a half hours, this documentary sometimes feels both overlong and far too detailed, but filmmaker Claude Lanzmann knows that this material is vitally important, and by putting it all out there he challenges the viewer to understand the truth.
January 12, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
Rich Cline
Contactmusic.com
Lanzmann draws on unused footage of a 1975 interview in Rome with Viennese rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein to assess his role as the sole surviving member of the Jewish Council installed by the Nazis to help run the Theresienstadt ghetto camp.
January 9, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Radio Times…
Plot
The Last of the Unjust is a documentary that explores the moral quandaries faced by Benjamin Murmelstein, the only Jewish elder to survive World War II, as he fought with Adolf Eichmann to help more than 120,000 Jews leave Germany.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The Last of the Unjust features an interview with Benjamin Murmelstein, the only Jewish elder to survive World War II.
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