Sometimes I’m afraid the tale might be forgotten. Sometimes I’m afraid it is forgotten already. So I’m telling it to relive it again.
Synopsis
With unique access to Elie Wiesel’s family and personal archives, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire will seek to understand the known and unknown Elie Wiesel – his passions, his conflicts and his legacy. Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire will ask: What drove Elie Wiesel throughout his life to be such a powerful voice for human rights? What were the dilemmas he struggled with? How can the lessons he drew from the Holocaust be applied to today’s hostile world, where authoritarian leaders threaten to destroy fragile societies and where memory of the Holocaust has faded? Our film traces Elie Wiesel’s journey from the parochial to the universal. He was wrenched from the loving Jewish world in which he was raised – which was utterly annihilated – to the world stage in search of universal perspectives. Elie Wiesel called himself a simple storyteller from Sighet, Romania, a man who struggled with a God who had seemingly betrayed him and his people – if not all humanity. He did not feel bound by either/or options. He insisted that open-ended questions and inquiry are far more important than answers.
About the Director
Oren Rudavsky is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and several National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts grants. Rudavsky produced, directed and co-wrote the NEH funded American Masters documentary: Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People which was nominated for a Critics Choice award. His film Colliding Dreams co-directed with Joseph Dorman, and The Ruins of Lifta co-directed with Menachem Daum, were released theatrically in 2016. Colliding Dreams was broadcast on PBS in May 2018. His NEH funded
Year
In Production
Production Country
USA
Subject Region
Romania, Germany
Director/Writer/Producer
Oren Rudavsky
Funding
With Assistance from Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany
Supported by the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future and by the German Federal Ministry of Finance
Stills
