The Exit of the Trains(RJ Retro)
Debates have long swirled about how cinema could and should remember and respect those who perished during the Holocaust. But what could be more appropriate than returning the humanity to all those faceless victims? Trawling public and private archives, Radu Jude and his co-director, the historian Adrian Cioflâncă, provide a harrowing (and alphabetical) litany of official portraits and photographs of hundreds of Jewish Romanians who were killed by both soldiers and civilians in the city of Iasi on 29th June, 1941. Accompanying each picture is a name, and a voiceover giving the man’s family’s account of the murder. What the first part leaves to the imagination, however, Jude and Cioflâncă bring to the screen in the film’s final minutes. More or less The Dead Nation’s gut-wrenching sequel, The Exit of the Trains is perhaps one of the most powerful documents of the Holocaust, and a roaring reminder of history and how it could or should be represented.
Director
Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă
Cast
Release Date
18-12-2021
Language
Romanian
Run Time
173 minutes
