Holofiction

The Holocaust and Nazi atrocities are among the darkest and most painful chapters in Europe’s recent history. The scale of destruction and suffering is almost impossible to fully comprehend, but cinema has tried to grapplel with this sbject many times. There are even thousands of fictional films about the Holocaust.

Michal Kosakowski has created a striking experimental archival film from these works. Shot by shot, Holofiction shows how movies from different decades repeat the same visual and narrative patterns. These films did not always try to recreate real events, and often unconsciously reproduced familiar ways of depicting them.

Holofiction explores how cinema remembers history while also functioning as a work of media criticism. Kosakowski’s film asks what role fiction plays in shaping memory, and how easily it can lead to simplification, sensationalism, and distortion. In the age of AI, the warnings of this film feel even more urgent. The music by Paolo Marzocchi helps create a horrifying atmosphere as viewers encounter the archive.

Espoo Ciné