THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ
An engaging and well-acted, if sometimes cliché-ridden, Holocaust drama
Cert: 15 Director: Tali Shalom-Ezer Cast: Harvey Keitel, Melanie Lynskey, Jonah Hauer-King Released: Out now
“In this hell we’re in, we’re only given two choices. The bad one and the worse one.” Auschwitz concentration camp worker, Leon (Phénix Brossard), puts this observation to fellow inmate, Lali Sokolov (Jonah Hauer-King), during one of their many, often quick, conversations. These conversations are always swiftly conducted, for at any moment the hard handle of a whip or the butt of a rifle could come raining down on the side of the head, the jaw or the nose. They could even be executed on the spot. It is indeed hell they are in.
Leon’s dialogue also encapsulates the thematic arc of this six-part series about a Slovakian Jew selected to work as a tattooist. He spends his waking hours inking serial numbers onto the forearms of prisoners selected for slave labour, while others are dispatched to the gas chambers. Lali must somehow survive his own ordeal while maintainingsometimes, heartbreakingly, has to partake in certain actions that will lead to the deaths of others. This is a grim burden; one many survivors faced daily.
