How to Make a Holocaust Love Story
Producer Claire Mundell, with the help of Streisand, Keitel and Hans Zimmer, tells an inspiring story from ‘the darkest place on Earth'
Welcome to the latest episode of Art & Crafts, The Ankler’s podcast series dedicated to bringing audiences behind the scenes to examine the careers and contributions of the talented artisans who create and craft the movies and TV series that we love. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
When she decided to branch out with her own production shingle in 2006, BBC alum Claire Mundell named her new company Synchronicity. “It's something I really believe in,” says the producer behind Peacock’s moving limited series, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. “I try and channel it wherever I can, and I certainly pay attention to those moments of synchronicity.”
Mundell experienced many such moments in the making of Tattooist’s six episodes — from tracking down the Australian author of the source material at a town hall talk in Melbourne to convincing Barbra Streisand to contribute “Love Will Survive,” her first-ever original song for TV. Mundell details the project’s journey in a conversation with cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, ASC (credits include Netflix’s One Piece and Taylor Sheridan’s Lioness for Paramount+).
The Tattooist of Auschwitz, based on a book by Heather Morris, follows the true story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who fell in love as prisoners at the notorious concentration camp and helped each other survive. The action moves back and forth from the chilling world of Auschwitz, with Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak as the improbable and imperiled lovers, to the 2000s, when Morris meets Lali, by then a widower (played by Harvey Keitel in what Mundell calls a “career-defining” turn).
“It’s an inspiring story of love and survival in the darkest place on earth,” Mundell says. “But we knew that we needed to make the show darker than the book in order that, visually and emotionally, you really do feel the miracle of love.” That meant adding some harrowing scenes to make the horrors of the Holocaust “super clear to an audience, some of whom might not be aware of what happened at Auschwitz,” Mundell says. “As remarkable as that sounds, sadly, I think it's true.”
Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve’s haunting score was a windfall. “He actually came to us,” Mundell recalls. But recruiting Streisand took a village, with the producer, the composers and members of Streisand’s team hustling as the clock ticked on finalizing the show’s sound mix. As soon as Streisand saw an early cut of Tattooist, it was a yes, and from there things happened “in a ridiculously short space of time,” Mundell recalls.
“So from now on, whenever you produce something and you say to the studio, ‘Wait for me to tell you when we're going to do the mix, wait till I'm ready,’ they're going to have to listen to you,” Whitaker jokes.
“They really are,” says Mundell, “because I'm the woman that got Barbra Streisand in less than three weeks.”
Transcript here.
