The Testament *** (2017, Ori Pfeffer, Rivka Gur, Hagit Dasberg, Orna Rotenberg) – Classic Movie Review 13,692

The 2017 Israeli-Austrian film The Testament tells the story of a Jewish historian’s legal battle with Austrian authorities refusing to recognise the real-life murders of 200 Jewish forced labourers in Austria in 1945.

Writer/ director Amichai Greenberg’s 2017 Israeli-Austrian mystery film The Testament stars Ori Pfeffer as Yoel, a meticulous Jewish historian leading a debate against holocaust deniers, who finds out his mother has a false identity. 

Yoel is willing to risk everything to discover the truth as he enters a legal battle with Austrian authorities refusing to recognise the planned murders of 200 Jewish forced labourers in Austria in 1945.

The film is based on the real Rechnitz Massacre but the name of the town is changed in the film to the fictional one of Lendsdorf.

The Testament (2017) is an admirable, intense and meaningful film with an extremely tense atmosphere, a strong, sympathetic central performance by Ori Pfeffer, and a complex screenplay economically handling an important, little-known real-life story.

The film’s story is fictional but inspired by events at the end of World War Two in Rechnitz, Austria. 

On the night of 24-25 March 1945, 200 Hungarian Jewish forced labourers were hunted down and killed near Rechnitz by notables who had gathered for a party at the castle of the Countess of Batthyany. The party and the murders were organised by her lover Hans Joachim Oldenberg. The massacre was covered up after the war; one witness was murdered and others died under suspicious circumstances.

In the film, Yoel find himself investigating the tragic story with its contemporary impact.

It won Best Israeli Film Award at the 34th Haifa International Film Festival, Best Screenplay at the 8th Beijing International Film Festival, and Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. It deserved more awards and more prestigious awards. Perhaps it is too sombre and distressing, and tells a tragic story that people would want to turn away from.

Cast: Ori Pfeffer, Rivka Gur, Hagit Dasberg, Orna Rotenberg.

Languages: Hebrew, German, English, Yiddish.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,692

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