SILVER HUGO AWARD - Chicago International Film Festival | BEST DEBUT FILM - Israeli Doc Forum
Holocaust survivors • Jewish History • Human rights
Date of Completion: 2012 | Run Time: 55 minutes | Language: Hebrew with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Includes: Transcript | Directors: Dana Doron & Uriel Sinai | Producers: Hilla Medalia & Neta Zwebner
Auschwitz prisoners, both Jewish or non-Jewish, were tattooed with serial numbers, first on their chests and then their left arms. An estimated 400,000 numbers were tattooed in Auschwitz and its sub-camps; only some several thousand survivors are still alive today. NUMBERED is an explosive, highly visual, and emotionally cinematic journey, guided by testimonies and portraits of these survivors. The film documents the dark time and setting during which these tattoos were assigned as well as the meaning they took on in the years following the war. In fact, the film’s protagonist is the number itself, as it evolves and becomes both a personal and collective symbol from 1940 to today. These scars, paradoxically unanimous and anonymous, reveal themselves to be diverse, enlightening, and full of life.
Variety | Justin Chang
"A moving compilation of testimonies from Auschwitz survivors whose tattoos serve as perpetual reminders of their imprisonment in the world's most notorious death camp."
Jerusalem Post | Benjamin W. Corn, Professor and Chairman of the Institute of Radiotherapy at Tel Aviv Medical Center
"The film by Dana and Uriel Sinai projects irony by documenting an emotional trajectory of human response to the infamous tattooing that arcs between shame and empowerment."
New York Times | Jodi Rudoren
"While the audience emerged with damp eyes, the overall message is somehow upbeat."