Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 16 July 2019
Film producer and Holocaust survivor Artur Brauner dies

By GEIR MOULSON plenty he would like an-
Associated Press other chance to work with
BERLIN (AP) — Artur Braun- — among them the late
er, a Polish-born Holocaust director Fritz Lang, "if he
survivor who became one would keep to my budget
of post-World War II Ger- targets."
many's most prominent film In recent years, Brauner
producers, died Sunday at was worried by the rise of
age 100. right-wing populism in Eu-
Brauner's family said he rope.
died in Berlin, the German "I can only recommend to
news agency dpa report- young people that they
ed. don't fall into the clutches
Culture Minister Monika of populists around the
Gruetters said Germany world and stand up with
has lost one of the most all their might to national-
important film producers ism, racism, anti-Semitism
of the post-war years, say- and xenophobia — now
ing it was "a great gift for and not when it is already
our country" that Brauner too late," he the dpa news
chose to make movies in agency in 2018.
Germany and support its The son of a Jewish wood
democratic rebuilding. She merchant, he was born as
also paid tribute to his ef- In this Monday, July 28, 2008 file photo, Artur Brauner, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who be- Abraham Brauner on Aug.
forts over the decades to came one of Germany's most prominent post-World War II film producers, poses for a portrait in 1, 1918, in the Polish city of
ensure that the victims of Berlin. Lodz. Brauner discovered
the Holocaust were not for- Associated Press his love for the cinema at
gotten. an early age and often
Brauner produced hun- sacre of Jews in Ukraine, in turi," a 1948 movie about for the needs of the audi- went straight from school to
dreds of films. They includ- which several of Brauner's a group of concentration ence," he told the Funke a screening. After finishing
ed several 1960s revivals relatives were killed. Braun- camp inmates helped to newspaper group in 2018. school in 1936, he joined an
of the "Dr. Mabuse" crime er was disappointed by the escape by a Polish doctor His persistence helped. He expedition of young docu-
movies and other hits such lack of box-office success near the end of the war, as recalled driving 36 times mentary filmmakers to the
as "Girls in Uniform," starring for the film in Germany, his most important film. through communist East Middle East, then studied
Romy Schneider. saying the test of "whether It received a negative re- Germany from Berlin to in Lodz until Nazi Germany
Several of the films he the German cinema pub- ception at the time but Munich in his rickety Volk- invaded Poland in 1939.
produced had Holocaust lic has become politically Brauner called it "practi- swagen to persuade the Brauner, his parents and
theme, including Ag- more mature" had "clearly cally the first film that dealt actress Maria Schell to four siblings fled east and
nieszka Holland's Golden negative" results. with the issue of Nazi vic- play the part of a penniless survived the war.
Globe-winning "Europa Eu- He also had a share in pro- tims." pregnant woman in the His parents later emigrated
ropa" about a boy in Nazi ducing "The Garden of the Brauner believed his lighter 1955 drama "The Rats," one to Israel. Brauner himself
Germany joining the Hitler Finzi-Continis," set in Benito post-war films matched the of his favorite films. considered emigrating to
Youth to try to conceal the Mussolini's Italy, which won public's taste. Brauner said there was no the United States, but her
fact he is Jewish. the Oscar for best foreign- "People wanted to be en- one in the movie business briefly returned to Lodz,
His "Babi Yar" in 2003 cen- language movie in 1972. tertained after the terrible he would never work with then moved to Berlin with
tered on the 1941 Nazi mas- Brauner described "Mori- war, and I had a feeling again, though there were his brother, Wolf.q

'This Side of Night' is suspenseful, thought-provoking

By BRUCE DESILVA Cherry's side. Rabbit, a strung-out meth his literary career.
Associated Press To make matters worse, El addict whom Ford is trying It is no easy thing, for ex-
"This Side of Night" (G.P. Paso DEA agent Joe Gar- to save; Fox Uno, an aging ample, to clearly describe
Putnam's Sons), by J. Todd rison has doubts about the drug lord with more blood a chaotic gun battle. It's es-
Scott loyalties of one of Cherry's on his hands than he could pecially difficult when there
In Texas' Big Bend country, favorite officers, America ever wash off; and two are three different groups
Sheriff Chris Cherry, the pro- Reynosa, whose extended survivors of the bus attack blazing away when it un-
tagonist of J. Todd Scott's family includes a cartel who are desperately trying folds on ground readers are
previous two novels, may leader. Still worse, Garrison to escape to America. unfamiliar with, and when
finally have run into more suspects the sheriff in one of America's war on drugs is more than 250 rounds are
than he and his smattering Cherry's neighboring coun- well-trod territory in crime fired in a matter of minutes.
of small-town peace offi- ties is on a cartel payroll. fiction, and T. Jefferson Yet Scott does it brilliantly.
cers can handle. That's the premise of "This Parker's Ronald Ford series Better yet, his descriptions
War between Mexican Side of Night," a crime nov- and Don Winslow's border of dry, stark Big Bend coun-
cartels has broken out el populated with compel- trilogy have set a high bar try are so vivid and poetic
again over control of the ling, well-drawn charac- for those who dare to fol- they approach the beauty
cross-border drug trade, ters. In addition to Cherry, low. But Scott's 20-year ca- of James Lee Burke's pas-
with busloads of student Reynosa, Garrison and their reer as a DEA agent infuses sages about Louisiana bay- This cover image released by
protesters gunned down families, there's Deputy his work with realism, and ou country. The result is a G.P. Putnam's Sons shows "This
on the Mexican side of the Danny Ford, who's torment- his writing chops will make fine novel that is suspense- Side of Night," a novel by J.
Todd Scott.
Rio Grande and bodies of ed by dreams of his service readers wonder why he ful, action-packed, literary, Associated Press
drug mules washing up on in Afghanistan; Eddy Lee waited so long to launch and thought-provoking.q