Beth Lane’s Unbroken is a harrowing documentary about the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who ventures on a global investigation to seek answers about the predicament of her mother and her separated siblings, who all, as children, escaped Nazi Germany depending on their youthful determination and the compassion of German strangers. The remaining surviving siblings come together. It is a harrowing story to process on paper, but watching the documentary unfold with pictures, documents, and stories fills the gap.
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The resilience and determination of the family members recalled in Unbroken are captivating and inspiring, reflecting why the documentary medium is still essential. The riveting stories told with such intimacy of a family revealing complex and delicate details profoundly moved me as people recalled tense and emotionally compelling memories that felt like yesterday to them. Eye-opening and persuasive stories recounting the horror of this moment unravel the details with its storytelling approaches like the best of true crime documentaries, unveiling the horrors of the Holocaust with remarkable intensity and sensitivity to the family’s experience.
Unbroken unites striking animation and archival photography as a way to enhance the storytelling and bring historical moments back to life, especially the piercing blue eyes and you ponder, “What was fact or imagination” when the Nazis took the mother away. It is a touching message that goodness can prevail over the evil flourishing in the world, a reflection of the past and a warning of the future. This choice of imagery profoundly underscores the blurred lines between memory and reality in the aftermath of such traumatic experiences. Sad stories like this belong in the past, but prejudice is a disease that hasn’t been dealt with, and the documentary, unfortunately, feels timely.
Unbroken is now available on VOD and streaming on Netflix.
