''The Witness'' is a short film (19 minutes) directed by
Chris Gerolmo
Chris Gerolmo is a Golden Globe nominated screenwriter, director, and singer-songwriter best known for writing the screenplay for the multi-Academy Award nominated film ''Mississippi Burning'' and the less successful ''Miles from Home'' starrin ...
, starring
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, humanitarian, and musician. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also received a sta ...
and
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012).
Woo ...
.
Plot
Set in a Nazi concentration camp, The Witness shows a series of repeating set of psychological actions.
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, humanitarian, and musician. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also received a sta ...
plays a guard, whose daily routine is to corral Jewish prisoners through a tunnel and into the gas chamber. Each day, as he performs this task, the guard is watched by a Jewish little boy (
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012).
Woo ...
), whose piercing stare unsettles him. He tries to shake this child's steady glare, day after day, until one night he steals into the barracks, finds the child and smothers him. Instead of being free of the accusing stare, another child has replaced the one he killed.
''The Witness'' was produced in 1992 in the United States and is in the German language.
Cast
*
Gary Sinise
Gary Alan Sinise (; born March 17, 1955) is an American actor, humanitarian, and musician. Among other awards, he has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also received a sta ...
as Young Soldier
*
Elijah Wood
Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012).
Woo ...
as Little Boy
*
Ryan Alosio as Lt. Hummel
* Aaron Freeman as Another Kid
*
Jono Gero as Paperwork Soldier #2
* Gregory Martin as Machine Gun Soldier #1
*
John Sudol as Machine Gun Soldier #2
*
Tim DeZarn as Paperwork Soldier #1 (as Tim De Zarn)
Home media
This film was one of four on a DVD released in Australia by the MRA Entertainment Group as ''Perverse Destiny, Vol 3''.
See also
*
List of Holocaust films
These films deal with the Holocaust in Europe, comprising both documentaries and narratives. They began to be produced in the early 1940s before the extent of the Holocaust at that time was widely recognized.
The films span a range of genres, wit ...
External links
*
1992 films
1992 short films
Holocaust films
1992 drama films
1990s German-language films
American drama short films
1990s American films
{{short-drama-film-stub