Film ReviewsDefiant RequiemMar 31, 2016 Anchorage Press
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In 1941 the Nazis rounded up Jews from Prague and herded them into the impenetrable walls of Terezín, a fortress built in 1780 by Hapsburg emperor Joseph II. They took everything but 110 pounds of luggage from each of them. The Nazis stripped the Jewish prisoners of clothes, jewelry, money, art, and everything material, but they couldn't take their minds, their souls or their voices.
Defiant Requiem documents the story of a unique rebellion that happened in the concentration camp, one of art, theater and music. Dough Schultz wrote, directed and produced Defiant Requiem, honoring survivors and victims of the Holocaust by commemorating an act of defiance on the part of composer Rafael Schächter and the other prisoners as they created a space for humanity through art, specifically, music within the moldy, damp and dark walls of the prison's basement.
Schächter's ambitious idea to teach 150 prisoners Verdi's Messa da Requiem was ingenious. The Requiem is a terrifically complicated choral and orchestra piece; the prisoners at Terezín didn't have music or librettos, so that meant committing music and lyrics in Latin to memory with nothing but the help of one piano and Schächter's guidance and commitment. Schächter used a work of music outside of Jewish culture but palatable to Nazi ears to give voice to the suffering and hopelessness felt by the 140,000 Jews that were at Terezín during the four years before the liberation.
On the one hand, to use a Catholic work to express the plight of Jews at Terezín seems antithetical and did face some opposition from the Jewish elders at the camp; but on the other hand, Schächter understood the core of the music and the source of its author, so it made perfect sense to interpret the Requiem through the lens of the dire conditions under which they were living. Schächter used Verdi's own sense of questioning and grief to empower the prayers and hopes of the Jewish prisoners.
Verdi was agnostic but held a profound spirituality. As a man of conscience, his Requiem transcends all religious structures. In fact, Verdi didn't write Messa da Requiem for God, he wrote it for his friend Alessandro Manzoni, a poet and writer who died in 1873. Verdi was too grief-stricken to attend the funeral. When the Requiem was played on the one-year anniversary of Manzoni's death, it was played at a church that did not allow applause-a dreadful parallel to the reception of Schächter's performance in the Spring of 1944, which didn't receive a single applause from the Nazi audience.
Defiant Requiem respectfully gives survivors from Terezín, including some who were in the choir, an opportunity to remember and reflect on their personal experiences undertaking this defiant act of art. Their contributions are deeply moving to say the least. The film uses old footage and photographs juxtaposing the Terezín of the 1940s and Terezín today. It is jarring to see the same architecture, the same cobblestone streets, perhaps even the same trees that have borne witness to the best and worst of mankind.
Defiant Requiem weaves a compelling account of Terezín with interviews, facts and figures to venerate the undying spirit of Jews in the Holocaust and their unyielding love for life. The film even uses footage produced by the Nazis in their successful attempt to fool the world about the true conditions and deathly impact of the "Final Solution" at Terezín.
In addition to telling the story of the past, Defiant Requiem also tells the story of the present by following Conductor Murry Sidlin, as he completes his labor of ten years to bring the Requiem back to Terezín. This time, with the surviving members of Schächter's choir in the audience, and free to leave.
Defiant Requiem shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, Apr. 4 at 8 p.m.
Defiant Requiem documents the story of a unique rebellion that happened in the concentration camp, one of art, theater and music. Dough Schultz wrote, directed and produced Defiant Requiem, honoring survivors and victims of the Holocaust by commemorating an act of defiance on the part of composer Rafael Schächter and the other prisoners as they created a space for humanity through art, specifically, music within the moldy, damp and dark walls of the prison's basement.
Schächter's ambitious idea to teach 150 prisoners Verdi's Messa da Requiem was ingenious. The Requiem is a terrifically complicated choral and orchestra piece; the prisoners at Terezín didn't have music or librettos, so that meant committing music and lyrics in Latin to memory with nothing but the help of one piano and Schächter's guidance and commitment. Schächter used a work of music outside of Jewish culture but palatable to Nazi ears to give voice to the suffering and hopelessness felt by the 140,000 Jews that were at Terezín during the four years before the liberation.
On the one hand, to use a Catholic work to express the plight of Jews at Terezín seems antithetical and did face some opposition from the Jewish elders at the camp; but on the other hand, Schächter understood the core of the music and the source of its author, so it made perfect sense to interpret the Requiem through the lens of the dire conditions under which they were living. Schächter used Verdi's own sense of questioning and grief to empower the prayers and hopes of the Jewish prisoners.
Verdi was agnostic but held a profound spirituality. As a man of conscience, his Requiem transcends all religious structures. In fact, Verdi didn't write Messa da Requiem for God, he wrote it for his friend Alessandro Manzoni, a poet and writer who died in 1873. Verdi was too grief-stricken to attend the funeral. When the Requiem was played on the one-year anniversary of Manzoni's death, it was played at a church that did not allow applause-a dreadful parallel to the reception of Schächter's performance in the Spring of 1944, which didn't receive a single applause from the Nazi audience.
Defiant Requiem respectfully gives survivors from Terezín, including some who were in the choir, an opportunity to remember and reflect on their personal experiences undertaking this defiant act of art. Their contributions are deeply moving to say the least. The film uses old footage and photographs juxtaposing the Terezín of the 1940s and Terezín today. It is jarring to see the same architecture, the same cobblestone streets, perhaps even the same trees that have borne witness to the best and worst of mankind.
Defiant Requiem weaves a compelling account of Terezín with interviews, facts and figures to venerate the undying spirit of Jews in the Holocaust and their unyielding love for life. The film even uses footage produced by the Nazis in their successful attempt to fool the world about the true conditions and deathly impact of the "Final Solution" at Terezín.
In addition to telling the story of the past, Defiant Requiem also tells the story of the present by following Conductor Murry Sidlin, as he completes his labor of ten years to bring the Requiem back to Terezín. This time, with the surviving members of Schächter's choir in the audience, and free to leave.
Defiant Requiem shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, Apr. 4 at 8 p.m.