ARTS&LIFE FILM REVIEW
HBO Original Film Tells the story of
A Boxer at Auschwitz
The Survivor explores the fine line of choosing to survive or choosing to live. ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
B
ased on a true story, The Survivor follows the journey of professional boxer Harry Haft (Ben Foster). Haft, born in Poland in 1925, was a Holocaust survivor who lived through Auschwitz by winning boxing matches against fellow inmates. The 2021 film, directed by Barry Levinson, travels through Haft’s life, jumping continents and generations to tell the story of how one true love can inspire a man to survive anything. The Survivor opens on a tranquil beach in Tybee Island, Georgia, in 1963, where Haft walks the sands alone. Yet as the camera travels downward, we see a shadow of a woman walking next to Haft, its movement cast on the sand. Haft, while alone in the physical sense, walks sideby-side with his long-lost love, Leah (Dar Zuzovsky), who was hauled away by Nazis in war-torn Poland two decades ago, never to be seen again. Haft, however, never stops looking for Leah, driven by a feeling deep inside that somewhere, somehow, she survived the second World War. Engulfed in memories of Leah, Haft, despite now having made a new life in the United States where he boxed as a renowned light heavyweight, continues to be haunted by the events of the Holocaust. One of the earliest scenes of the film shows Haft in the ring in Coney Island, New York, in 1949, where announcers call him the “Pride of Poland and Survivor of Auschwitz.” These words hold little meaning to Haft, whose mind is filled with memories of Leah, which play out in the film in black-and-white (while scenes after the war play out in color). There is a sense that these lost memories have also lost their color, a world that no longer
PHOTOGRAPH BY JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/HBO
continued on page 54 Ben Foster and Peter Sarsgaard
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MAY 12 • 2022
MAY 12 • 2022
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