How cinema has told the story of the Shoah
MICHAL KOSAKOWSKI’S “HOLOFICTION” PREMIERES AT THE 82nd VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
SZ Sugar curates the publishing and distribution of the original score by Paolo Marzocchi
“I don’t want to tell the story of the Holocaust, but to show how cinema has constructed — and sometimes distorted — that imagery. The viewer is taken into an ambiguous space where victim and perpetrator can overlap, played by the same actor in different films. It is a work about the echo of trauma and the responsibility of representation.”
With these words, Polish-German director Michal Kosakowski describes Holofiction, his experimental silent film, which will have its world premiere at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival (Lido di Venezia, August 27 – September 6, 2025) in the “Venice Classics – Documentaries on Cinema” section.
Entirely composed of fragments from over 3,000 audiovisual works on the Shoah, collected by Kosakowski over roughly eight years and assembled through monumental found footage editing, Holofiction is a visually and emotionally powerful project. It invites the audience to reflect on how historical memory has been filtered, shaped, and often stereotyped by cinematic language from 1938 to the present day.
Inspired by documentary filmmaker Claude Lanzmann’s skepticism toward the visual representation of historical trauma, the film questions whether it is even possible to depict an atrocity of such magnitude — and how to do so without distorting its meaning or trivializing it. Through an essayistic approach, Holofiction encourages viewers to confront the ethical challenges of cinematic storytelling, fostering a deeper understanding of how these portrayals shape collective memory and historical perception.
Without dialogue, Holofiction takes the form of a contemporary silent film, where images and music provide the sole narrative thread. Essential to achieving its hypnotic, profound, and paradoxical effect is the original score by composer Paolo Marzocchi from Pesaro. Published by SZ Sugar, the score is conceived as a sweeping dramaturgy that both links the film’s visual fragments and offers new interpretations and emotional resonances. The musical material draws on two symbolically charged themes: the Jewish tango Ich hab kein Heimatland by Friedrich Schwarz and the lullaby Wiegala, composed by Ilse Weber in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
“In a silent film, music becomes the architecture of the narrative,” says Marzocchi. “I worked to create an emotional journey that wouldn’t explain the images, but rather challenge them. Schwarz’s tango and Weber’s lullaby are sonic memories that drift through the film like ghosts. I think it’s important not to forget that, despite the empathy generated by the images, what you’re watching is a vast ‘meta-fiction,’ and music is sometimes used to make that paradox — in which everything is fiction — clear.”
The score was performed by the WunderKammer Orchestra, a chamber ensemble founded by Marzocchi, who also appears here as pianist. It features soloists Danusha Waskiewicz (viola), Valentina Coladonato (voice), and the children’s choir Novello InCanto from Ravenna, conducted by Elisabetta Agostini. The electronic elements were created in collaboration with Andrea Veneri. Recording and mixing were carried out by the Applied Music Department of the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Ravenna.
The original soundtrack of Holofiction will be released on major streaming platforms by SZ Sugar, which also oversees its publishing and distribution. This initiative is part of SZ Sugar’s cross-disciplinary vision as a music and publishing house, promoting the interplay of music, narrative, and visual language in an open, contemporary perspective — beyond the boundaries of genre.
By Carla Monni