The Pasaka movie theater in Vilnius and the Israeli embassy to Lithuania invite the public to a free screening of the film Testament at the movie theater located at Šv. Ignoto street no. 4 at 2:00 P.M. on Sunday, January 27 Entrance free. The film is in Hebrew, English, German and Yiddish (Lithuanian subtitles will be provided).
The Testament is a film about Holocaust historian Yoel Halberstam, who becomes involved in a legal battle over the brutal mass murder of Jews in the fictional town of Lensdorf, Austria, at the end of World War II. An influential industrialist family on whose land the massacre took place are planning a large real estate development at the mass murder site. Yoel suspects the goal of the construction is bury all memory of the event forever, but he needs proof to stop it from going forward.
Event supporters: Lithuanian embassy to Israel, Israeli embassy to Lithuania
According to a press release from the Israeli embassy:
“TESTAMENT” (Amichai Greenberg) to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Almost all of the Lithuania’s Jewish population was massacred during the time of Holocaust. To commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Israeli Embassy in Lithuania and the Lithuanian Jewish (Litvaks) Community, in cooperation with Cinema Theater Pasaka in Vilnius, organizing a review of a film “The Testament,” directed by Amichai Greenberg.
“The Testament” is a film telling about Yoel, a senior Holocaust researcher, who is in the midst of a widely covered legal battle with powerful forces in Austria, concerning a brutal massacre of Jews that took place toward the end of WWII in the village of Lensdorf. An influential family of industrialists on whose land the murder took place, is planning to build a real estate project on the very same land. Yoel suspects that their aim is to bury the affair for good, but has trouble finding the conclusive evidence that would stop the project.
While investigating the incident Yoel examines classified testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and to his shock and surprise he finds a testimony given by his mother, a testimony he didn’t know existed. In her testimony she confesses to a substantial secret from her past.
Yoel, who’s conducting a double-investigation, personal and scientific, is trapped between walls of silence–on one side, denial of the Holocaust on the part of the villagers, and on the other, his mother’s silence regarding her past. As a historian with an unshakeable commitment to the truth, he decides to continue his investigations even at the cost of ruining his personal and professional life.
Amichai has been writing, directing and producing for TV, film and new media for 15 years. His projects include local as well as international educational and commercial institutions such as TV channels 1, 2 and 10, video journal, ZDF, Mandel Institute, Yad Vashem and the Spielberg Visual History Foundation. Testament is his first feature film.
The event will take place on Sunday, January 27, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The start of the cinema session is at 2:00 P.M. in the grand hall of cinema Pasaka. Ignoto street no. 4/3.
Movie originally is in Hebrew. With Lithuanian subtitles.
Entry is free of charge.