Atlantic Drift
Adi Gefner. whose parents Anne [Chane] Edelstein and Jakob Gefner were both murdered in the Holocaust, and her husband, Oskar Sitzmann, were among the "lucky" 2,000 Jewish refugees who fled Europe in the hope of beginning a new life in Palestine. After three months drifting at sea on board the Atlantic - the last transport to leave Nazi Germany during the war - they were denied entry into Palestine by the British Navy, who organised their deportation to Mauritius. They were interned on the Indian Ocean island for the remainder of the war.
In 2002,Writer-Director Michel Daėron - 1999 Eueopean Awards Best Documentary Award nominee for La Chaconne d'Auschwitz - co-produced the documentary film Atlantic Drift, recounting the story of the thousands of refugees who had gathered in Vienna and Bratislava, desperately seeking passage on any boat willing to take them down the Danube and onto safety. Their three months sojourn across the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea was a cruel follow-up to the maltreatment suffered under the Nazis, with death, disease and hunger commonplace on the voyage. Far from being the Promised Land, arrival in Palestine meant incarceration by the British, who subsequently deported them to Mauritius where they were detained for a further five years.
Taking part in the documentary is ex-refugee Hannah Haendel who returned to the Napoleonic prison in Mauritius with her 55 years old son, Shlomo, who finds it hard to understand why his father was killed and buried in one of the 124 Jewish graves facing out to the Indian Ocean.
Widely exhibited to great acclaim at international film events, Atlantic Drift is dedicated to Adi Sitzmann, whose hand-drawn map of the journey she experienced is incoporated into the production's advertising poster. Special thanks to Rudolf Kotschever for his assistance on the background to this film and to Michael Daėron and associates for the reproduction of pages featured on the website, www.atlanticdrift.com.
Atlantic Drift
a Coproduction of
Extrafilm, les Films d'Ici, Filao Films, France 3, Noga Communications
a film by
Michel Daėron
with
Hanna Haendel
Ernst Stern
Shlomo Haendel
Myriam Zamstag
Henry Wellisch
Yaffa Kessler
Baruch Or
Meir Feldman
Uri Miodowski
Harry Hargreaves
Peter Engler
Voices from
Sabine Kranzelbinder and Franz Robert Wagner
Camera Georges Diane
Camera Assistant Martin Schmachtel
Sound Joe Knauer
Cutter Eva Feigeles-Aimé
Music Jacques Davidovici
Post-Production France 3 Productions Lyon und Lille, Listo Film und Listo
Video, Wien, Synchro Film Wien
Mixing Jean-Baptiste Marizy, Manfred Folie
Production
Supervisor
Corine Janin
German Version in collaboration with
Bernd Neuburger
35mm Colour 90' Austria -
France - Israel
Producers
EXTRAFILM, Knut Ogris, Lukas Stepanik · Les Films d“Ici, Serge Lalou · Filao
Films Michel Daėron · France 3, Patricia Boutinard Rouelle · Noga Channel,
Israel, Sinai Abt, Amit Breuer
Written and directed by Michel Daėron
Supported by
Wiener Film Fonds
ORF (Film-Fernsehabkommen)
Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation Hootesh Ramburn and Selven Naidu
In Collaboration with
Le Centre national de la cinématographie
Participating
La Procirep
Developed with the support of
The media program of the European Union
Pratt Foundation
Guy le Clezio
Dedicated to
Meir Feldman and Ady Sitzmann
Atlantic Drift links
