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Je n’avais que le néant – "Shoah" par Lanzmann

All I Had Was Nothingness
Berlinale Special 2025
© USHMM et YAD VASHEM - Collection SHOAH de Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann spent twelve years creating Shoah (1985), a groundbreaking work that revolutionised the representation of the Holocaust in cinema. Four decades later, filmmaker Guillaume Ribot immerses himself in over 220 hours of unreleased footage from the original filming. Lanzmann’s quest to capture the reality of the Holocaust led him to interview victims, witnesses and perpetrators from all over the world. He embarked on an unparalleled journey which, overcoming doubts, setbacks and false leads, finally resulted in a landmark of film history. In 2023, the film was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Now, Ribot uses only Lanzmann’s own words drawn from his memoirs and previously unseen excerpts from his filming material to pay homage to one of cinema’s masterpieces and to the director’s relentless pursuit of telling the untold.
by Guillaume Ribot (Director, Screenplay) France 2025 French, English, German, Polish 94' Colour World premiere

Crew

Director Guillaume Ribot
Screenplay Guillaume Ribot
Editing Svetlana Vaynblat
Sound Design Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, Vincent Arnardi
Producers Estelle Fialon, Dominique Lanzmann

Produced by

Les Films du Poisson

Les Films Aleph

World Sales

mk2 Films

Photos

Guillaume Ribot

© Ribot

After studying photography and art history, the 54-year-old director, screenwriter and photographer was initially active in press photography and dedicated over 25 years to the theme of memory, particularly the Holocaust. His work has featured in major publications such as “Time Magazine”, “Le Monde” and “The New York Times”. He has also published several books on the Holocaust and his work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York. Since 2014, he has focused on directing and screenwriting, with a strong interest in history and archival images.

Filmography (documentaries)

2014 Le cahier de Susi; medium-length film 2016 Treblinka; medium-length film 2019 Vie et destin du livre noir (The Black Book) 2022 Moissons Sanglantes (Ukraine 1933: Seeds of Hunger) 2025 Je n’avais que le néant – “Shoah” par Lanzmann (All I Had Was Nothingness)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025