Primo Levi's Journey (La Strada di Levi) (2006)

86% of critics liked it
(21 reviews)
56% of users liked it
(259 ratings)

Primo Levi's harrowing memoir If This Is a Man appeared in the U.S. in 1959 as Survival in Auschwitz; historians now regard it as the most critically important written conveyance of the horrors within the Nazi concentration camps. But the account in that text only represents half of Levi's story.… More Primo Levi's harrowing memoir If This Is a Man appeared in the U.S. in 1959 as Survival in Auschwitz; historians now regard it as the most critically important written conveyance of the horrors within the Nazi concentration camps. But the account in that text only represents half of Levi's story. The other half began after his release from Auschwitz. Instead of simply returning to his native Turin, Levi and 600 others were forcibly shipped east -- thousands of miles away from their homes. Thus began a grueling, trans-national journey that Levi undertook, across war-ravaged Europe and back to Turin -- a journey that took all of 12 months to complete, and that filled him, alternately, with incredulity, anger, wonder, and astonishment -- as he reflected on the meaning of his own survival in the camps. Levi died in 1987; as a tribute to the belletrist and historian, acclaimed nonfiction filmmaker Davide Ferrario (Far from Rome, Borderline) retraces Levi's route with his cameras in his documentary Primo Levi's Journey. Ferrario travels through Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Germany, and south to his native country, evaluating, at each stop, the sociological climate and the various ways in which Eastern Europe has alternately evolved and remained static over the prior 60 years. Ferrario touches on numerous issues relevant to the contemporary sociopolitical landscape of Eastern Europe, as the Russian satellite countries struggle to develop national identities, and concurrently reflects on the experiences of Levi's original trip. Celebrated Polish filmmaker Andrezj Wajda appears early on and serves as a "tour guide" for one of the first legs of the voyage. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Davide Ferrario
Written By: Marco Belpoliti, Davide Ferrario
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Aug 17, 2007 Limited
On DVD: Aug 19, 2008
Studio: Cinema Guild

Critic Reviews

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Italian documentary filmmaker Davide Ferrario, who specializes in what he calls "on the road" documentaries, decided to retrace Primo Levi's steps in modern Europe. It was a wise choice.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Primo Levi's Journey is a rather unfocused but ultimately provocative portrait of Eastern Europe.
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
The film lacks a certain coherence, and Levi -- one of Italy's most important postwar writers -- is mostly relegated to an excuse for a sociopolitical travelogue.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
Vividly impressionistic and delightfully curious.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
A profound meditation on the unevenness of history, reminding us -- as Faulkner once remarked -- that the past not only isn't dead, it isn't really past at all.
Julia Wallace, Village Voice
Primo Levi's Journey is almost willfully opaque about the actual circumstances of Primo Levi's journey. Who exactly was this man we're meant to be paying homage to, and why did it take him so long to get home?
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's told in such a messy and questionable way to unintentionally diminish Levi's more striking and dark tale.
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
Fascinating.
Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters
If some of its connections remain obscure, its storytelling is both sinuous and resounding. History, memory, forgetfulness%u2014all comprise the present.
Steve Ramos, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
If one artist is deserving of a documentary account of his story, it's Italian author Primo Levi.
Doris Toumarkine, Film Journal International
For filmgoers who value something fresh and original on the big screen, the documentary delivers.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Travelogue is exquisitely shot and the dark poetry of Levi's words, read at intervals throughout the film, is brought to haunting life by a suitably weary-sounding Chris Cooper.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A thoughtful and insightful Italian documentary that retraces writer Primo Levi's 1945 trip from Poland to Italy after he was liberated from Auschwitz; it contains a fascinating glimpse of post-communist Europe.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Even when Ferrario's observation of a country's distinct political anxiety is interestingly tied to one of Levi's philosophical musings about the self and the world, the film still radiates the aloofness of a dry academic lecture.
Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve
A sober, melancholy recreation of a journey that Primo Levi took mostly through Eastern Europe, after his liberation from Auschwitz.
Louis Proyect, rec.arts.movies.reviews
Sensitive study of the journey taken by Primo Levi in the immediate aftermath of WWII. Mixes his own words with ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down by the end of the USSR and Eastern European socialism. Makes subtle political points t