MAY 12 • 2022 | 53

ARTS&LIFE
FILM REVIEW
B

ased on a true story, The Survivor follows the jour-
ney of professional boxer Harry Haft (Ben Foster). 
Haft, born in Poland in 1925, was a Holocaust 
survivor who lived through Auschwitz by winning boxing 
matches against fellow inmates. The 2021 film, directed by 
Barry Levinson, travels through Haft’s life, jumping conti-
nents and generations to tell the story of how one true love 
can inspire a man to survive anything.
The Survivor opens on a tranquil beach in Tybee Island, 
Georgia, in 1963, where Haft walks the sands alone. Yet 
as the camera travels downward, we see a shadow of a 
woman walking next to Haft, its movement cast on the 
sand. Haft, while alone in the physical sense, walks side-
by-side with his long-lost love, Leah (Dar Zuzovsky), who 
was hauled away by Nazis in war-torn Poland two decades 
ago, never to be seen again.
Haft, however, never stops looking for Leah, driven 
by a feeling deep inside that somewhere, somehow, she 
survived the second World War. Engulfed in memories 
of Leah, Haft, despite now having made a new life in 
the United States where he boxed as a renowned light 
heavyweight, continues to be haunted by the events of the 
Holocaust. 
One of the earliest scenes of the film shows Haft in 
the ring in Coney Island, New York, in 1949, where 
announcers call him the “Pride of Poland and Survivor 
of Auschwitz.
” These words hold little meaning to Haft, 
whose mind is filled with memories of Leah, which play 
out in the film in black-and-white (while scenes after 
the war play out in color). There is a sense that these lost 
memories have also lost their color, a world that no longer 

The Survivor explores the fine line of 
choosing to survive or choosing to live.

HBO Original Film 
Tells the story of

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

53 | MAY 12 • 2022 

A Boxer at 
Auschwitz

Ben Foster and Peter 
Sarsgaard

PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/HBO

continued on page 54

