24/01/2003

Veteran German film producer Artur Brauner, 84, is a living legend. He is also a man in danger. According to Austrian daily newspaper “Der Standard”, Brauner has received a series of threatening phone calls in relation to the forthcoming screening at the 53rd Berlinale of his latest film, Babij Jar, directed by Jeff Kanew.
“The film will be released in cinemas as planned and then whatever must happen, will happen,” said Brauner, who was nominated for an Oscar for Hitletjunge Salomon in 1992.
Babij Jar is a Euros5m German-Russian co-production about one of the least known tragedies of WWII; the murder of more than 30,000 Ukrainian Jews by German troops in a place called Babij Jar – the Old Woman’s Pit. Members of Brauner’s family were amongst the victims and making this film was one of his life’s ambitions. Babij Jar has already been released in the United States to critical and popular acclaim.