When acclaimed film producer Claire Mundell first optioned the rights to Heather Morris’ bestselling book, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, she felt a huge amount of responsibility.
Not only was she tasked with adapting a much-loved novel, which has now sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, the harrowing yet ultimately hopeful story was inspired by real people, who Claire felt duty-bound to honour and respect in her retelling.
Both the 2018 book and the new six-part TV series, which is airing now on Sky Atlantic, follow the story of Lali Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1942, where given the job of tattooing numbers on to fellow prisoners. There he meets and falls in love with Gita Furman, and their story of love and survival unfolds.
“We took the responsibility of making this show so seriously,” explained Claire, whose award-winning production company, Synchronicity Films, is based in Glasgow. “Heather herself spent three years with Lali, becoming, really, the last significant relationship of his life. In the last few hours before he passed away, she told him that she would never stop doing everything she could to get his story out to the world – so, when we optioned her novel, we took on the baton of that responsibility.”
Many years in the making, the series exposes the atrocities of the holocaust in vivid detail, which does make for upsetting viewing. Claire and other members of the production, cast and crew visited Auschwitz before starting work on the show, and she says sensitivity and authenticity was put at the heart of every scene.
“We started developing this [adaptation] back in 2018, so it’ll be six years in October that we’ve been working on it. Drama, traditionally, does take a long time but, in this case, we wanted to have all six scripts written before we started shooting anything because it was so important to see the shape of the story, and to make sure the tone of the storytelling – and the way in which we were approaching the subject matter – was just right.
“If you commit to any project, the devil is in the detail – and good drama, any good work, benefits from a macro and micro approach. You have to be really detailed and thorough. And with this particular story, the detail is even more important because you have to really craft it with care and attention.”
Starring Jonah Hauer-King (Disney’s The Little Mermaid) as Lali during his life as a prisoner under Nazi rule, and Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction) as his modern-day counterpart, tormented by his memories, the star-studded drama also features Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets, The Last of Us) in the role of author Heather Morris. Jonas Nay (Deutschland 83) plays brutal SS officer Stefan Baretzki, and Polish-born actress Anna Próchniak takes on the role of Gita, while the score was composed by the legendary Hans Zimmer. The cast and wider crew, Claire says, were pivotal in helping create a “thrilling and rewarding” production, which is “no less than Lali’s story deserves”.
“It’s a real person’s story and it’s also an incredibly sensitive subject matter, which is triggering for many people. So we’ve had to approach every aspect of the production from the very beginning to this point – the promotion, the artwork, every aspect – with the same level of care and attention because it’s important and it means a lot. It’s so nuanced, this material, this story, so you have to get those details right.
“I’m proud and pleased and privileged that we’ve done what we can to get this story to the largest audience, with a really stellar cast and some incredible collaborators like Hans Zimmer and Barbra Streisand, who sings on the closing credits. I’m very grateful for the opportunity.”
A fan of the original novel, Claire believes Lali and Gita’s love story was always destined for the small screen rather than a Hollywood blockbuster – and having previously directed the BBC psychological thriller, The Cry, starring Jenna Coleman, which was also based on a bestselling novel, she was perfectly placed to help their enduring romance live on.
She said: “Sometimes when you fall in love with a book, there can be a time when you’re debating whether a film or a series is the best way to go – but we didn’t have that at all with this project. The scope of the story was so wide that you couldn’t possibly contain it in 90 minutes. You would have to lose so much amazing material. We knew from the beginning that a television adaptation was the way we wanted to go.
“The focus of our story is, obviously, the love story because it’s such an extraordinary thing – for two young people, faced with imminent death and constant horror, to find it within themselves to connect with another human being is like an act of resistance, really. All around them people are being dehumanized and murdered and brutalised, and the one thing they both have left, literally, is their heart. I’ve no doubt that the extraordinary nature of that is the reason the book has been so successful, and reached and touched so many people.”
She added: “Everyone can relate to love and the hope of love. And also the very active question in this show is about survival – what would any of us do to survive? We tell the story of the way Lali and Gita survive, which is through love.
“The themes in the show are completely universal, no matter what age you are – and obviously, it’s an incredibly important subject matter and a story that we have to keep telling. Epic is the only world to describe it, really.”
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is airing now on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW.
