JIFF: Holofiction

Holofiction

“...a film about how we have learned to see history. It is a powerful work, a mirror held up to our collective memory.” – Art Magazine

NSW Premiere

Constructed of clips from over 3,000 films and television shows produced between 1938 and the present, Holofiction is an astounding audiovisual collage exploring cultural representations of the Holocaust and how these have shaped and permeated our collective memory.

Taking Claude Lanzmann’s famous statement on the impossibility of Holocaust representation in fiction – “Fiction is a transgression. It is my belief that the depiction of certain things is prohibited” – as its point of departure, Polish-German filmmaker Michael Kosakowski’s cinematic supercut of reconstructs the chronology of the Holocaust through repeated motifs and narrative patterns.

Kosakowski’s hypnotic visual essayist approach invites audiences to query the ethics of depicting atrocities in fictional cinema, and to consider how the endless cinematic reproduction of certain representations shapes collective imaginations and historical memory.

Each session will be preceded by a video introduction from Dr Simon Holloway from the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

Festival Appearances/Awards
Venice International Film Festival 2025 – Official Selection
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026 – Official Selection

This film is co-presented by Goethe-Institut.

Rating

Unclassified 15+

Duration

102 min

Country

Germany, Austria

Director

Michael Kosakowski

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