Eyewitness

A documentary anatomy of mass murder for one monitor and 34 talking heads These are the words the filmmakers use in the credits to describe their project which thematises the execution of more than 260 Carpathian Germans Hungarians and Slovaks by Czechoslovak army soldiers near Přerov in June 1945 The massacre at Přerov is made present through a minimalist dramatisation of the interrogation footage of direct participants eyewitnesses and others It is as if the characters of ancient theatre were entering the Zoom stage and delivering a tragic message of fear hatred and disinterest across the chasm of time