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EXCLUSIVE: Following the success of The Tattooist of Auschwitz drama, a new documentary film is being made with Gary Sokolov, the son of Gita and Lali Sokolov, the protagonists of the series. The Tattooist’s Son: Journey to Auschwitz will chart an emotional journey he undertakes, culminating in a visit to the notorious concentration camp.
Heather Morris’ bestselling novel ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ and the subsequent drama series were inspired by the memories of Jewish Slovakian Holocaust survivor Lali Sokolov. It told of the love story between him and Gita that began when they met as prisoners in Auschwitz.
Filmed in Melbourne, Slovakia, and Poland, the 90-minute documentary will be released next Jan., to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It follows Gary, the only child of Lali and Gita. His journey takes in key sites as well as meetings with Heather Morris and the actors who played the younger versions of his mother and father in the series, Jonah Hauer-King and Anna Próchniak. There will also be footage of the real Lali Sokolov, clips from the drama series, and archive footage.
Claire Mundell’s Synchronicity Films produced the drama series, which won popular and critical acclaim on Sky Atlantic and NOW in UK and Peacock in the U.S. along with various other channels and platforms worldwide. It is also producing the documentary, which is a coproduction between Hearst Networks EMEA and Sky and will air on Sky History in UK. Stephen Bennett will direct.
Mundell told Deadline the starting point for the doc was Gary attending the launch of the drama series in London. “His parents’ incredible love story became the subject of this huge global bestseller and then it was adapted by us into a drama series, which also sold all over the world. And yet, he knew very little about what had actually happened to his parents because they had not really spoken to him about it. I thought it would make for a really compelling documentary if he allowed us to follow his journey.”
Sky has complemented its drama series with related docs before, as was the case with Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes, a companion piece to hit drama Chernobyl.
“From a Sky History point of view, there is an importance around the commemoration of the liberation of the camps, and we were very keen to mark that moment,” said Dan Korn, VP of Programming, Hearst Networks EMEA. “When this project came up, it was an opportunity to visit the idea of intergenerational Holocaust trauma that comes through in this film. We follow Gary going to see the site of one of the worst atrocities in human history, but at the same time, beginning to understand his own identity and upbringing.”
“The drama was based on a very personal recollection of a very personal story, but it’s a story that Gary was entwined with in a way that no other viewers in the world were,” added Kathryn Taylor, a Commissioning Editor with the Sky Documentaries team. “What we see in the documentary is Gary, who has been motivated by the drama series to find out for himself about some of the things that it depicted. He is finding out about what happened in the drama, his own perspective on that, and how that chimes with what he’s finding out on the ground as he walks through those locations.”
