Feb 28 - ALL I HAD WAS NOTHINGNESS (2025)

Director: Guillaume Ribot
Spoken language: French, English, German, Polish, Hebrew
Subtitles: English
Info: 2025 | France | 94 min
Date/Time: Saturday February 28th, 18:45
Introduction by: Bertien Minco

A powerful return to the making of SHOAH (1985), built from unused footage and Claude Lanzmann’s own words, confronting what cannot be filmed.

ALL I HAD WAS NOTHINGNESS (2025) is composed entirely of unused material shot by Claude Lanzmann during the production of SHOAH (1985). Director Guillaume Ribot edits this footage into a new film that reveals how Lanzmann built his monumental work, and how much uncertainty, danger and ethical conflict shaped the process.

The film follows Lanzmann across Europe and Israel as he tracks down survivors, searches for eyewitnesses, and revisits the landscapes of former extermination sites in the present tense. Among the key testimonies are Simon Srebnik, one of the very few survivors of Chelmno, and Abraham Bomba, who was forced to work in Treblinka.

At the same time, Lanzmann seeks out perpetrators, sometimes openly, sometimes through deception and hidden recording devices. Throughout, his conviction remains central. The Shoah cannot be illustrated, only confronted through places, language and testimony. In doing so, ALL I HAD WAS NOTHINGNESS becomes both a documentary on genocide and a precise account of the method and urgency behind SHOAH.

This screening is the Dutch premiere of ALL I HAD WAS NOTHINGNESS. The film will be introduced by Bertien Minco.

— Bertien Minco has been director of the Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork since 2022. —

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