This film is currently unavailable
Shoah (Second Era)
Claude Lanzmann's monumental chronicle of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made.
Director: Claude Lanzmann
Overview
Claude Lanzmann's monumental oral history of the Holocaust has been acclaimed by many as the greatest documentary ever made. It ranked second in Sight and Sound's Greatest Documentaries poll, and 29th in the same magazine's Greatest Films of all time survey.
The nine-hour film is divided into two Eras, chiefly focusing on events at the concentration camps in Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka, as well as the uprising at the Warsaw ghetto. Shoah has had a pervasive influence on both filmmaking and wider culture, and is now regarded as a historical record of note rather than a mere documentary account. Lanzmann spent eleven years making the film, which is almost exclusively composed of testimonies from survivors, juxtaposed with contemporary footage of the Holocaust sites. The filmmaker's landmark decision to forgo the use of archive footage becomes the film's distinguishing quality, with the absence of footage posited as a symbolic representation of the annihilation attempt directed at the Jewish people. This foregrounding of survivor testimonies as the key historical record became hugely influential, inspiring the establishment of Steven Spielberg's United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which now houses all 350 hours of Lanzmann's unedited rushes. Shoah is one of the towering achievements of cinema; one which demands to seen at least once by any keen student of history, or cinema.
Related
Desire: The Carl Craig Story Desire: The Carl Craig Story
Documentary 2024 91 mins Director: Jean-Cosme Delaloye
An intimate portrait of legendary techno producer, DJ and record label creator Carl Craig and an ode to his beloved city, Detroit.
Emotion Pictures: Yearning and Repressed Desire in Melodrama Emotion Pictures: Yearning and Repressed Desire in Melodrama
Short documentary 2025 19 mins Director: Maha Albadrawi and Henry Barnes
Writer Nadia M Oliva tracks the development of the melodrama genre and how it plays out across film, TV and online.
Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti
Documentary 1983 30 mins Director: Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Immerse yourself in the work of Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti - icons of the Mexican Renaissance.
Amy! Amy!
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1980 33 mins Director: Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's essay film commemorating pilot Amy Johnson's pioneering solo flight to Australia in 1930.
Rhianna Dhillon's favourite Coming of Age films Rhianna Dhillon's favourite Coming of Age films
Short documentary 2025 11 mins Director: Maha Albadrawi and Henry Barnes
Rhianna Dhillon selects her favourite Coming of Age films available now on BFI Player.
Bushman Bushman
Documentary 1971 75 mins Director: David Schickele
Neglected since its release in 1971, Bushman follows a Nigerian student in San Francisco but is interrupted by the arrest of its leading man.
A Woman Under the Influence A Woman Under the Influence
Drama 1974 146 mins Director: John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes' powerful drama stars Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk as a blue-collar couple struggling to cope with the wife's slide into mental illness.
The Marriage of Maria Braun The Marriage of Maria Braun
Drama 1978 120 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
With a blazing star performance from Hanna Schygulla in the title role, this was the greatest critical and commercial success of Fassbinder’s career.
Theorem Theorem
Drama 1968 98 mins Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pasolini’s classic about a handsome, enigmatic stranger (Terence Stamp) who arrives at a bourgeois household and seduces an entire family.
L'Age D'Or L'Age D'Or
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1930 63 mins Director: Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali unite for this masterpiece of cinematic surrealism remains as brilliantly witty and shocking as ever, more than 80 years on.
Rashomon Rashomon
Crime 1950 88 mins Director: Akira Kurosawa
Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.
Paris, Texas Paris, Texas
Drama 1984 145 mins Director: Wim Wenders
The late, great Harry Dean Stanton's finest role came as the near-mute Travis, on a journey across America to reunite his family, in Wim Wenders' moving tale of loss and redemption.
20th Century Women 20th Century Women
Drama 2016 118 mins Director: Mike Mills
Annette Bening stars as a mum enlisting two friends (Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning) to help her son navigate adolescence in Mike Mills’s comedy-drama.
Stan & Ollie Stan & Ollie
Biopic 2019 98 mins Director: Jon S. Baird
Steve Coogan and John C Reilly give delightful performances as Laurel & Hardy - comedy’s most famous double act - as they enter their twilight years.
Urchin Urchin
Drama 2025 99 mins Director: Harris Dickinson
The debut feature from actor Harris Dickinson sees a homeless addict get a shot at recovery and redemption.
Malpertuis Malpertuis
Fantasy 1971 125 mins Director: Harry Kümel
Orson Welles stars in this labyrinthine mythological fantasy set in a baroque mansion, from the director of Daughters of Darkness.
Daughters of Darkness Daughters of Darkness
Horror 1970 100 mins Director: Harry Kümel
A newlywed couple is entangled by the spellbinding aura of a vampire in Harry Kümel’s seductive horror.
Godland Godland
Drama 2022 143 mins Director: Hlynur Pálmason
Breathtakingly inventive and ambitious historical epic about a young Danish priest travelling to a remote Icelandic outpost to establish a church.