The Survivor
Based on a true story.
When the Nazis invade Poland in late 1939, Harry Haft (Ben Foster) is sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp. He is a powerfully built man, so a charming but sadistic Nazi officer offers him an impossible deal: fight fellow prisoners in the boxing ring for the amusement of his captors, or die. The winner of the bout survives to fight again. The loser is shot or sent to the gas chamber.
How far will Harry's will to live take him? What will he do to escape the death all around him?
Critic Reviews:
- " Ben Foster portrays Haft, convincingly, at several different ages, and the film has great things to say about inherited trauma, especially the specifically Jewish kind. " – Stephen Silver (Splice Today)
- " You’ll be hard-pressed to find a performance this year that offers as much soul, heart and strength as Ben Foster in ‘The Survivor.’ You can feel the weight of his pain with his stillness and how he takes in his surroundings. " – Preston Barta (Fresh Fiction)
- " This is excellent… It's beautifully shot and powerfully acted. " – Christy Lemire (FilmWeek, KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)