Shoes (2012 film)


Shoes is a 2012 international short film directed, written and produced by Konstantin Fam. The film is the result of a joint effort by professional team from Russia, the USA, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, Belarus and Ukraine. The film is the first novel of the film trilogy "Witnesses" dedicated to the memory of victims of the Holocaust. It was the only nominee from Russia for the Academy Awards in the short film category in 2013.

Plot

The first installment traces the personal history of a Jewish girl in 1930s-1940s from the point of view of a pair of red shoes. Starting from the shop window where the shoes were purchased and ending at a mountain of discarded shoes of the victims in a mass grave of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Film crew

The main object in a shot is a pair of the shoes. There are no dialogues in a shot and we see no human faces but only their shoes. The film is accompanied by an original soundtrack inspired by Jewish folk motives.

Cultural effect

In 2013 the Deputy Director of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Efim Rezvan on behalf of the Museum presented the film an honorary diploma from "for bright creative contribution to the museum's exhibition program and the preservation of memory".
Together with the Department of Human Rights and the Department of Education Nuremberg plans to create an educational program for school children in Germany.

Accolades

Awards