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France, Germany · 2014
1h 44m
Director Christophe Cognet
Starring
Genre Documentary
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When the Allies liberated Nazi concentration camps in 1945, they discovered thousands of pieces of hidden artwork, created in secret by prisoners. Because I Was a Painter documents some of these artworks, reexamining the Holocaust through the survivors that refused to surrender their artistic spirit in the face of evil.
Cognet's work is more devoted to thought about aesthetics than aesthetics themselves. His modest film represents a break from the rigorous historical work typically associated with documentaries about the Holocaust, and its open-ended nature is a fitting analogue to ongoing questions about testimony and healing.
More attention paid to the narrative of some of these pieces, rather than simply their craft, could have been more enlightening.
The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij
A less successful aspect of the film is Cognet’s attempt to tie the concentration camps as contemporary spaces into the narrative, with shots of the now practically empty landscapes -- some tourists here and there notwithstanding -- interspersed throughout.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
As crude as many of these works are, they exert an eerie cumulative power.