Harvey Keitel Relives Nazi Death Camp Survival in ‘Tattooist of Auschwitz’ Trailer

Etan Vlessing
·2 min read

Harvey Keitel plays an Auschwitz survivor who recalls the demons of his past and falling in love in a hellish Nazi death camp in the trailer for The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the Peacock and Sky limited series that unveiled a trailer on Thursday.

The six-parter sees Keitel playing an elderly Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew who arrived at a nightmarish Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazis’ largest concentration and extermination camp during the Holocaust, in 1942 and worked as tätowierer (tattooist), who inked identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms.

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“But I found something there, someone,” a stoic Lali, around 60 years later, tells Heather Morris, the young novice writer (played by Melanie Lynskey in the series) whose popular novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, inspired the limited series.

As Lali tells Morris about his Auschwitz years, where as a young man he is played by Jonah Hauer-King, he introduces Gita Sokolov (Anna Próchniak), whose arm he tattooed as the two young Jews fell in love at first sight.

When Lali is close to losing his will to continue living in Auschwitz, Gita restored his faith in life. “We must keep living, whatever it takes,” she tells Lali in flashbacks, as she holds his head in her hands.

Tattooist of Auschwitz is inspired by the real-life story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, with the “inspired by” noting how Morris in her novel fictionalized some parts of the harrowing story of two young Jews in Auschwitz, as relayed to her by the personal recollections of a recently widowed Lali. The event series about the power of love and survival from Synchronicity Films is directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer and will premiere on May 2.

The screenplay is written by Jacquelin Perske, Evan Placey and Gabbie Asher, with Morris serving as a story consultant. The executive producers credits are shared by Claire Mundell, Adrian Burns and Mark Young, Serena Thompson, Shalom-Ezer and Perske. The co-production with Sky and Peacock will be sold around the world by NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution and All3Media International.

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