THE LABYRINTH
US/Germany, 2010, 37 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Jason A. Schmidt.
The Labyrinth is a brief film but compelling.
The film is a collaboration between two Jesuit institutes, December 2nd Productions in the US and Loyola Productions in Munich. The priests responsible are Ron Schmidt SJ in the US and Christoph Wolf SJ in Germany.
The subject of the film is an Auschwitz survivor, Marian Kolodziejb. On the advice of his parish priest, he joined the Polish Resistance at the outbreak of World War Two but was arrested at the age of nineteen and spent the next five years or more in Auschwitz. He was very much influenced by Maximilian Kolbe giving his life for another man who had a wife and family and suffering severely before his execution. This story is brought into The Labyrinth very effectively. In fact, the Christian spirituality is pervasive of the film, especially showing Jesus falling on the way to Calvary and the comment made by the artist that he was going to his own Golgotha.
The focus of the film is Marian, fifty years after coming out of Auschwitz, taking up pen and ink drawings, providing art installations, quite a labyrinth in the basement of a church, dedicated to Maximilian Kolby, near Auschwitz.
The film spends a great deal of time roving over the artwork – graphic pictures of the Holocaust, familiar images from some of the photos as well as the artwork. In terms of the Jewish Holocaust, this film provides an art means of dialogue between Christians and Jews and their experiences in the concentration camp.
The musical score is solemn, reinforcing the impact of the images. It was remarked that the art is not so much about the physical suffering of the inmates, which is it, but of the suffering of their souls.
The narrative from the artist (who died in 2009) indicates familiar themes but highlights them with the visuals and graphics, the importance of a bowl for food as well as for washing, the necessity of hanging on to the bowl as long as possible. The picture of the guards and their tyranny is paramount. There are also scenes of hands reaching out – symbolic of hope.
When Marian was released from Auschwitz, he later became a theatre and art director, married, had a long and fruitful life. Eventually breaking the silence with this art, he was prolific in the wide range and number of artworks in his labyrinth.
The film won the Interfaith-SIGNIS award for best documentary at the Dakhar film festival in 2012.
