Admirable but Stiff Holocaust Drama

It’s safe to say that films dealing with the Holocaust have a higher bar than most. The subject is so momentous that any efforts not reaching a certain level of quality can come across as exploitative. Lior Geller’s independent feature doesn’t reach those heights, but it redeems itself with the obvious care that’s gone into it, the excellent performances and cinematography, and the fact that it deals with an unfortunately little-known story that needed to be told. As such, The World Will Tremble earns its place in a very crowded genre. 

The story begins in 1942 Poland in the Chelmno extermination camp, the first of its kind to be devoted exclusively to the mass murder of Jews. We’re introduced to several prisoners, including Solomon Wiener (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, The Invisible Man), Michael Podchlebnik (Jeremy Neumark Jones, Granchester) and Wolf (Charlie MacGechan, We Die Young).

The camp’s seemingly friendly commandant, Lange (David Kross, The Reader), assures new arrivals that they have nothing to worry about and that they’ll be treated better there than they were in the ghettos. But that lie is quickly revealed as we watch them herded into large vans and gassed to death. The hardier male prisoners are kept alive to serve as gravediggers. In one of the film’s most harrowing scenes, Michael is horrified to discover that his wife and daughter are among the victims. He begs a German officer to shoot him dead, but his plea is refused because he’s deemed still healthy enough to work.

The Nazis’ sadism is displayed when Lange orders a prisoner to play his violin. “Play something happy, something to dance to,” he instructs, making the prisoners dance by having the guards shoot at their feet. That is, until one of the men misses and, much to Lange’s annoyance, accidentally kills an attractive young woman whom he had his eye on.

At another point, the guards play target practice by shooting at bottles placed on the prisoners’ heads, resulting in another “accidental” casualty. That finally convinces Solomon and Michael to make an escape, leading to some harrowing incidents as they attempt to make their way through the countryside filled with German soldiers.

Geller’s screenplay feels perfunctory in its plotting and characterizations, giving the proceedings an unfortunately rote, uninvolving feel. The dialogue isn’t much better. When the two escapees finally manage to return to their village and tell their story, a disbelieving rabbi (Anton Lesser), who might as well have “Irony” stamped on his forehead, responds, “This is the 20^th century. No one can annihilate an entire nation and get away with it.”

The scene works anyway, thanks to the committed performances by the lead actors. When the rabbi offers the starving escapees some food, they grasp it desperately before shamefacedly pausing to say a prayer before wolfing it down.

Ironically, The World Will Tremble proves most effective in its coda, when onscreen text informs us that the two men provided the first eyewitness account of the mass murder of Jews. Their story, related in a BBC broadcast in June 1942, formed the basis of the first news report about the Holocaust. We also see footage of the elderly Podchlebnik, in an interview filmed decades after the events, as he describes encountering the dead bodies of his family members. His anguished, teary face, shown only for a few moments, is more deeply affecting than the entire dramatization preceding it.