The Package Tour

A documentary which follows a coach party of former inmates on a trip to Auschwitz. As a subject it has a certain built-in success factor; the uncontained grief of these people is inevitable, though none the less moving. But while the camera's presence often proves unbearably intrusive upon its subjects' emotions, there is a far more telling interview, intercut with the journey, from a woman who was forced to stay at home, thanks to a recurrent illness brought on by the attentions of the camp doctor. She speaks in tranquil recollection about the arbitrary nature of the death queues, and who might or might not survive the ovens. Because of her cool and her distance, it is her one remembers when the agony of the visitors is long forgotten. CPea.