As part of the activities linked to the Giorno della Memoria, or Holocaust Memorial Day, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ held a sold out screening of the 1992 film by Paolo Benvenuti, Confortorio. The film is the story of two Jewish men convicted of crimes and sentenced to death by hanging in Rome in 1736. The rabbis of the Ghetto hand the men over to Church authorities without trying to help them we are told by a former rabbi who has converted to Christianity. We have no idea if that is true or not.

What the crimes the men actually committed in order to be convicted is never fully discussed nor is the role of the rabbis in handing these men over. We are also left without an understanding of the traditional punishment of the times.

Clearly, the Jewish people were tortured because of their religion during that time, which should always be condemned. The film was part of the Memorial week largely because of this parallel with the Shoah. Once the point is made however, within the first five minutes, the rest is merely an orgy of violence and suffering.

The 85 minute movie filmed largely in Caravaggioesque shadows shows the fervent and contorted logic of the Church in trying to convert the two men to Christianity before their death so that they can pray for forgiveness. It is quite exasperating in terms of the claustrophic nature of the scenes. The two men, Abramo and Angeluccio, are handcuffed and dragging their feet as they plead for mercy and become ever more entrenched in their faith as the movie unfolds. When they go to their deaths, it is as a member of the Jewish faith, neither the Church nor a formerly Jewish rabbi who converted to Christianity is able to persuade them to convert.

The cruel nature of the church at that time is shown in all its glory for the entire 85 minutes. Some members of the church appear to be possessed in the film while others are shown to be extremely cruel. Despite the fact that this film was nominated for a series of awards when it was released, watching it today, it seems to be quite out of date.

Much like Mel Gibson’s highly anti-semitic film, The Passion of Christ, this film also is actively focusing on violence minute by minute so that the spectator can feel the anxiety of the person who is being executed. The film would have been much more powerful had it been shorter and more context about the times been added. Clearly, the Jewish people in those years were subjected to awful treatment. The vileness of it is not, in my opinion, made any clearer by watching the film for 85 minutes. Perhaps it would have been  more powerful as a 15 short film. As an 85 miinute film, it just felt like overkill.