nor

wish
ric captors.

dson of survivors, said
unt in his childhood
heads Tulsa's housing
of charities such as

me that I shouldn't be
..i cular spent her life
'e by improving condi-
irector, who attended
nce, R.I., and Juilliard

e a difference by acting
,..gated to comic roles
is 5-foot-6 and, in his
Jugh he turned heads
elmar, the dimwit hill-
rt Thou? he began writ-
rork (including the 1997
serious issues.

elson read at least
ailing sonderkomman-
3irkenau and the memoir
ist Miklos Nyiszli, a
tion in the village of
_rvised construction of
turn based on Nazi

led the performances: "It
/ e you sick," said Oscar-
i o plays a member of the

avid Arquette (see
accompanying story) — depicts the squad's grisly
work in meticulous detail, including the repainting
of soiled gas chamber walls and the handling of bod-
ies with specially designed pokers.

starring Harvey iceite and

Mechanized Horror

Without a shred of the sentimentality of Holocaust
films such as Life is Beautiful or Schindler's List, the
movie "may well evoke the mechanized horror ... of
the Nazi death camps more vividly than any fiction-
al film to date," the newspaper Variety wrote.
Nelson explained that his goal was "to break many
of the conventions of the 'Holocaust film.' The Jews
in this movie don't pray or cower. They are crass and
profane. They treat bodies like bolts of fabric. They
seem to be working in a factory, which is what they
had to do to survive."

10/25
2002

78

camp underground.
"It was so oppressive that it was the only time in
my life I felt I did almost no acting."
Like many of the other actors, Sorvino — who ate
600 calories a day for weeks to appear emaciated —
agreed to minimal pay because of her personal con-
nection to the material.
"I've been obsessed with the Holocaust from the
time I was 10 and I read the [book] Diary of Anne
Frank and our German housekeeper told me to stop
crying because it was all a lie," she said.
'After that I had nightmares about being hunted
by Nazis, which recurred after making the film."

Deflecting Criticism

Despite the best efforts of the cast and crew, the
movie already has received criticism. Nelson said
several viewers have objected to his depiction of
Holocaust victims as less than angelic.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said he
declined to screen the film because its graphic
sequences would . "upset our survivor constituency. ),
Perhaps the staunchest critic of all — at least ini-
tially — was Dario Gabbai of Los Angeles, who
worked at Birkenad's crematorium as the camp was
"processing" 24,000 corpses in 24 hours.
After his first viewing of the film, he complained
about details- such as the lavish feasting of the son-
derkommando, which was not his experience.
But Gabbai — who changed his mind after
spending hours with Nelson — cried during the
premiere last month at a benefit for the Los Angeles
Museum of the Holocaust.
"Since seeing the movie I am dreaming again
about the flames and the bodies," he said. "But it is
a story that needs to be told."

❑

The Grey Zone opens Friday, Oct. 25, at the
Maple Art Theatre in Bloomfield Township.

In "The Grey Zone,"
Allan Corduner plays
Miklos Nyiszli, the
Jewish doctor forced to
assist the notorious
German death camp
doctor Josef Megele, in
a scene with Kamelia
Grigorovia as a 14-
year-old girl found
alive amid the gas
chamber corpses.