SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL | SFJFF 2010

Only a survivor of five concentration camps would have the chutzpah to make bitter humor out of his experience--starting with the title of this compelling documentary. Pizza in Auschwitz ('Best of Festival,' International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2008) follows Israeli Holocaust survivor Danny Chanoch as he retraces the steps of his gruesome childhood journey from farm to shtetl to concentration camp, with his adult children in tow. Tensions build to a climax when the entourage comes face to face with Danny's ultimate goal: to spend a night with them in his old Auschwitz baracks. For vociferously wary daughter Miri, who narrates the documentary, and quietly-concerned Orthodox son Sagi, this might be the last straw in the experiment that Miri calls "Holocaust reality TV."

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