- Director
Vladimír Balko - Original idea
Mária Šnircová - Producer
Lívia Filusová - Production company
Furia Film ... - Director of photography
Ján Meliš ... - Editor
Maroš Šlapeta - Planned premiere
September 2012 - WWW
www.furiafilm.sk - Financial Support
Fond for Audiovision (SK) - development
Agata Schindlers' Diary
Denník Agaty Schindlerovej, Slovak Republic, 75 min, 35 mm, Digi Beta, Arts and Culture, History
Schindler’s Diary SYNOPSIS Explanation “To leave one’s history unexplored means to not have the possibility to build the future on a solid foundation.” The aggressive racial policy of Hitler’s Germany lasted from 1933 to 1945. In less than twelve years this policy managed to change the geopolitical map of Europe with all its implications. The persecution of Jews was a profound intervention not only in Europe’s demography, but it also meant the destruction of values created by the Jewish population. Even today, white spots can be found on the map of the history of that time which are harder and harder to fill after all the time that has passed by. Our documentary is a search of the destiny and works of Jewish musicians who were persecuted as a consequence of Hitler’s so-called racial laws. Hence, our objective was to recover at least part of the cultural heritage, to return it to its original place and to remind everyone that, without this cultural heritage, we, the people living at the present time, are deprived. In this way we would like to remind people of how dangerous it is to judge anything and anyone on the basis of origin, race or religion and what the consequences can be. If we fill out the blank spots in history, we can learn from our own mistakes and prevent such a thing from ever happening again.
The documentary Mrs. Schindler’s Diary presents the personality and work of musicologist Agata Schindler whose life work was the so-called “damned music”. It is a documentary about a little-known area of music, composers and interpreters of such music who became the victims of the anti-Semitic policy. The documentary will not just be a portrait of an exceptional scholar, archaeologist of lost destinies of forcibly silenced artists. In the feature sequences, we will attempt to outline fragments from the lives of the persecuted artists themselves, and to show the landmark moments when history affected their lives unfavourably. We will choose artists so as to show the broad range of musicians and also how the dictatorship proceeded in a different manner when persecuting them. At the same time, their stories, developing throughout the film, should analyse the psychology of suffering, the ability to retain their values and also show how those who survived, managed to re-integrate into life, even among people who were not always capable of self-reflection. At the height of her career, Agata Schindler organised concerts at which, thanks to her efforts, the forcibly silenced music was revived. Thus, she returns into musical history and to today’s listeners those who involuntarily dropped out of history prior to 1945. At the end of the documentary we will take part in such a concert in order to see the reactions of contemporary audiences.
The documentary Mrs. Schindler’s Diary presents the personality and work of musicologist Agata Schindler whose life work was the so-called “damned music”. It is a documentary about a little-known area of music, composers and interpreters of such music who became the victims of the anti-Semitic policy. The documentary will not just be a portrait of an exceptional scholar, archaeologist of lost destinies of forcibly silenced artists. In the feature sequences, we will attempt to outline fragments from the lives of the persecuted artists themselves, and to show the landmark moments when history affected their lives unfavourably. We will choose artists so as to show the broad range of musicians and also how the dictatorship proceeded in a different manner when persecuting them. At the same time, their stories, developing throughout the film, should analyse the psychology of suffering, the ability to retain their values and also show how those who survived, managed to re-integrate into life, even among people who were not always capable of self-reflection. At the height of her career, Agata Schindler organised concerts at which, thanks to her efforts, the forcibly silenced music was revived. Thus, she returns into musical history and to today’s listeners those who involuntarily dropped out of history prior to 1945. At the end of the documentary we will take part in such a concert in order to see the reactions of contemporary audiences.
Director:
Vladimír Balko
Producer:
Lívia Filusová
Screenplay:
Vladimír Balko, Mária Šnircová
Original idea:
Mária Šnircová
Dramaturgy:
Mária Šnircová
Executive producer:
Zuzana Ricotti
Director of photography:
Ján Meliš, Ivo Miko
Editor:
Maroš Šlapeta
Languages:
Slovak
Subtitles:
English
Furia Film, s.r.o.
(Production company)
Ferienčínkoa 1
811 08 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
811 08 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Fond for Audiovision (SK) - development
