Six Million and One

Following dad's diary

Josef Fisher’s secret diary, detailing his survival in the Nazi camps, was discovered only after his death. His children refused to face the painful reading - except for David, the filmmaker, who saw the diary as his life's calling.
He is determined to lead his siblings to the forced labor tunnels in the Austrian mountains, so they can experience together their father's unimaginable will to cling to life at all costs.
Fisher also recognizes this as an opportunity to dismantle the charged relationships among the siblings and reunite the family.

This is no ordinary roots journey in the shadow of the Holocaust. Deep in the dark earth, eight kilometers into the heart of darkness of a former mass labor camp, guided only by flashlights, the Fisher siblings search for meaning in both their family and personal history. As the sources of pain are exposed, the siblings find themselves crying and laughing in bittersweet scenes that lend this deeply personal work a rare intimacy.

A profound and painful statement that touches everyone.

Hanoch Marmari, Israeli critic

"A wonderful film—deeply moving, open, and featuring a beautiful interaction between the siblings

Peter Wintonick, international film producer

I laughed and cried, cried and laughed

Michael Barenboim, a Hollywood scriptwriter 

An unconventional family, atmosphere, and setting, in a highly unconventional film

Yehuda Stav, Israeli critic

Director's Statement

No one wanted to open Father’s diary after his death, probably because he had been silent his entire life. Who knew what demons would leap at you from a place kept locked and silent for so many years.
I opened it.
Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Gusen, Gunskirchen, murder, beatings, starvation, cannibalism, homosexuality. The demons ran wild.
Some of the places and stories were familiar to me from the Israeli Holocaust lexicon, and the diary's lines dissolved right into them. But others I had never heard of in my life, sounding as if they were taken straight out of The Lord of the Rings. Forgotten, surreal, imaginary, devoid of reality.
I traveled there with a camera to change their fate. I wanted to make them real.
I went halfway alone. The second half I forced upon my siblings, who resisted the journey even while they were on it. Duped, confused, and reluctant, I dragged them into caves, forests, and ruined barracks so that, together, we could touch what had been locked inside that diary.
This is not a film about the Holocaust—because most of the time, we laughed.

— David Fisher

The film has screened at dozens of film festivals worldwide, winning First Prize at the Munich International Documentary Film Festival (DOK.fest), an Honorable Mention at DOXA in Canada, the Audience Favorite Award at IDFA in the Netherlands, and Best Director at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland. It is also the recipient of the Minister of Culture and Sport Award for Zionist Creativity.