"+Shoah+ thus joins the cinematographic heritage of the Memory of the World, the archives of the Lumière brothers, +Metropolis+ of Fritz Lang, +Los Olvidados+ of Luis Buñuel, and all Bergman," said the association in a statement, welcoming to confirm "the unique place of this masterpiece between art and history".
The candidacy of this "film-monument" was proposed "jointly" by the French and German National Commissions of UNESCO, as "a strong symbol of the Franco-German friendship for which Claude Lanzmann has worked since 1947". It was carried by the ACFL for the France, and by the Jewish Museum of Berlin for Germany.
With this inscription, the association "counts on UNESCO to be able to extend its work on a global scale".
The film "Shoah" has entered the history of cinema by its duration (9:30), its form (no archive images) and its purpose: to tell the "unspeakable", the systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazis. Its realization was a long-term adventure since the preparation and filming were spread out from 1974 to 1981 and the editing lasted almost 5 years.
Thousands of articles, studies and debates have been devoted to this award-winning documentary - including a César d'honneur in 1986 - seen by tens of millions of spectators around the world, taught in schools.
This documentary brought to the fore the term "Shoah" - which appears in the Bible and means "annihilation" in Hebrew - which has since imposed itself in Europe in everyday language.
The announcement of its inscription on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register comes on the day that Jonathan Glazer's "The Zone of Interest" (in competition) is presented in Cannes, which shows the trivialization of horror with a portrait of a Nazi officer enjoying the pleasures of life in his house next to the Auschwitz camp.
© 2023 AFP