PRIMO

UK, 84 minutes, 2007, Colour.

Antony Sher.

Directed by Richard Wilson.

An experience well worth seeing, one of the best films about the experience of Auschwitz.

Primo is the Italian Jewish chemist, Primo Levi, arrested by the occupying Germans and sent to Auschwitz. With his chemist background, he was employed in a rubber manufacturing firm during his internment. He was amongst those liberated in 1945, returning home to Italy, writing an autobiographical account of his experience, If This Were a Man. He continued working in chemistry, married and had a family, wrote more books, dying in 1987.

His autobiographical book has been adapted by the South African actor, Antony Sher, and the staged version has been filmed for television by Richard Wilson, his only film credit.

The performance can finds itself to some austere and plain stylised sets. Any opening out of the action in Auschwitz has to be in the imagination of the audience, spurred on by the words of the screenplay but also by the intensity of Antony Sher’s performance.

Quietly, but sometimes with raised voice, and suppressing anger, Sher recounts Primo Levi’s experiences. Which means that we share the bewilderment of the arrest and its uncertainties, the hardships of the train travel from Italy to Eastern Europe, first impressions of Auschwitz, the treatment of the prisoners, the anti-Semitic prejudice, the authorities as well as the staff and the capos in the camp.

We share the day by day experience, the huts, the isolation, the sharing, the early hours, the work details, the meagre food, sometimes some unexpected help from a sympathetic cook, illness, some respite in the infirmary, awareness of the illnesses, the number of deaths, the perpetual cold.

We share Primo’s response to his situation, his memories, the continued focus on the present and survival, some possibilities for friendships, the disappearances of many of the inmates, his reaction to being chosen to work as a chemist, the experience of 1944, and life expectations or not.

And, then, 1945, differing attitudes amongst the authorities, news of the approach of the Russians, many disappearances, the prisoners left to themselves, the opening up of the camp, release and freedom.

We appreciate the many films with their settings in Auschwitz and their re-enactments of the dread experiences, of the camp itself, work, the gas chambers, the horror of 6 million Jews dying. But, the 84 minutes of watching Primo mean that we have to go into ourselves, into our imaginations, into our feelings, empathy, judgement, an invitation to share and relive the Auschwitz experience.