Primo Levi's Journey 2007
Distributed by Cinema Guild, 115 West 30th Street, Suite 800, New York, NY 10001; 212-685-6242
Produced by Rossofuoco
Directed by Davide Ferrario
DVD, color, 92 min.
Sr. High - Adult
Biography, European Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Literature, Travel and Tourism, Storytelling, World War II, Writing
Date Entered: 01/14/2008
Reviewed by Brad Eden, Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication, University of California, Santa BarbaraThis documentary is a reenactment of Primo Levi's 1963 book The Truce, which is sometimes called The Reawakening and became a film in 1997 starring John Turturro. Levi, a prisoner of Auschwitz, spent ten months after his release touring parts of Europe with a group of fellow inmates. The director starts with pictures of Ground Zero in New York City, then takes the viewer to Auschwitz. Filming the parts of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Italy that Levi saw in the mid-1940's, the director shows the viewer how dramatically different Europe is today from Levi's time. An interesting and scenic tour of the former Soviet Union.