The University of Manchester Centre for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce the 2021 Bogdanow Lecture in Holocaust Studies will be delivered by Oscar-winning film director László Nemes. The globally acclaimed filmmaker, whose 2015 film Son of Saul won numerous international prizes including the Academy Award, the Grand Prix, the Golden Globe and BAFTA, will speak on the topic of Holocaust portrayals in fiction film. We are honoured that the opening address for the event will be given by Chancellor of the University of Manchester Lemn Sissay.
Son of Saul will be streamed online in collaboration with UK Jewish Film as part of this year’s event series. Set among the Auschwitz special squads, the film follows the fictionalised attempts by one squad member to give a murdered child a traditional Jewish burial. The film’s stunning portrayals have received numerous critical accolades, including praise from Nobel Peace Prize winning survivors and writers Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertész; iconic filmmakers such as Claude Lanzmann (Shoah, 1985) and Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, 1994), who have themselves approached the Holocaust in their films; and philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, who considered the film ‘A necessary, coherent, beneficial, innocent monster.’
The annual public Holocaust lecture series was made possible as a result of the generous bequest to the University by Fanni Bogdanow (1927-2013), a former Professor of French and Medieval Studies at Manchester and a child refugee on the Kindertransporte. Previous Bogdanow Lectures were delivered by eminent historians in the field, including Christopher Browning, Tony Kushner and Dina Porat.
László Nemes will be the first cultural practitioner to deliver the Bogdanow Lectures and his work at the interface of cultural production, Holocaust memorialization and academic discourse on Holocaust representation will be of interest to diverse audiences from within the academic and creative communities, as well as the general public.
The Holocaust at Eye Level: László Nemes, Oscar-Winning Director of Son of Saul (2015) in Conversation with Cathy Gelbin, Professor of Film and German Studies at Manchester University, Department of Drama. Followed by public Q&A. Open to the public.
Eventbrite link for conversation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bogdanow-online-holocaust-event-2021-tickets-136291540667
The opening address for the event will be given by Chancellor of the University of Manchester Lemn Sissay.
Further information http://www.manchesterjewishstudies.org/bogdanow-lectures-2021/
