Remember This

With a solo performance by David Strathairn that is remarkable and gripping, Remember This is a beautiful adaptation of a play to film, done artistically and with great finesse and drama. Strathairn seamlessly plays all the characters, while telling the moving story of Jan Karski, a Polish Holocaust witness and hero, as he wanders in Poland from prison to camps, and finally to the office of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The story powerfully reminds us to “remember this, remember this, remember this,” as the brutal stories of prisons and concentration camps unfold. The filmmakers’ use of lighting, sound, music, and a few spare props brilliantly reflect the moral courage and individual responsibility that Karski displayed, despite the mental anguish and physical torture he endured. It is the rare actor who can hold the audience’s attention for 90 minutes without fancy effects. Strathairn does this with ease. (Woodstock Film Festival)