Harvey Keitel On ‘The Tattooist Of Auschwitz’ Series & Playing Lali Sokolov: “Even The Tragedy Of The Holocaust Could Not Kill Mankind’s Ability To Love”

Stewart Clarke
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Harvey Keitel tells Deadline there is “a sense of fulfillment achieved” with The Tattooist Of Auschwitz. He stars as Lali Sokolov in the the drama series, which is based on the Heather Morris bestseller and launched strongly on Sky in the UK and Peacock in the U.S.

The limited series follows Jewish-Slovakian Holocaust survivor Sokolov and recounts the love story between him and Gita, whom he met in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The pair fell in love and built a life together, and their story was dramatized in Morris’ novel. Synchronicity Films produced the show in association with Sky Studios for Sky, Peacock and Australia’s Stan.

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Sokolov relayed the story that inspired the book and series to Morris over several years before he died in 2006. Having secured the book rights, Synchronicity founder and series EP, Claire Mundell, was focused on getting Keitel to play Sokolov and showed his then-UK agent footage of Morris’ time with him.

Having taken the role, Academy Award-nominee Keitel also then watched the tapes. “When I saw the videos of Lali I had no impression in terms of myself,” he says. “He was one of millions of unfortunate people who had to suffer in Auschwitz. There were no survivors at Auschwitz. Only those who died and those who didn’t.”

In the series, Keitel plays Sokolov as he looks back on events from his life. Jonah Hauer-King is the younger Lali, Anna Próchniak is Gita Furmanova and Melanie Lynskey plays Heather Morris. Israeli director Tali Shalom-Ezer helmed all six episodes and Jacquelin Perske was head writer.

Known for numerous iconic parts on screen, Keitel says he was honored to play the lead in The Tattooist of Auschwitz and is “grateful that my path has brought me to be a part of telling this story.”

With each passing generation further away from the horrors of the Holocaust, Keitel says that “one of the purposes of art is its ability to reveal stories of our successes and failures in our effort toward civilization.”

“Through each personal story told where an audience can imagine themselves in the shoes of the protagonist, we put a face of this horror into the minds of generations of human beings who have not witnessed it.”

Mundell concedes there was a concern that the viewers “can’t take tough material, that it would be too upsetting,” although she adds that “the emotion of Lali and Gita’s love story pulls audiences through to the end.”

For Keitel, The Tattooist Of Auschwitz has a very human dimension. “There are many stories that can never be told because people didn’t survive to tell them,” he says. “A powerful love story in the face of tragedy is a life-affirming testament to the human spirit. Even the tragedy of the Holocaust could not kill mankind’s ability to love.”

The audience has certainly embraced the show; it has been Sky’s biggest drama launch in two years in the UK and Peacock’s biggest international original in the U.S. In Poland, it was the best performing drama premiere on streamer SkyShowtime and has been a hit on Stan and for Corus in Canada. M6 in France, JioCinema in India, M-Net & Showmax in Africa and Movistar Plus+ in Spain are among those that have acquired the series.

Asked where playing Sokolov in the series fits into a body of work spanning five decades, Keitel says The Tattooist of Auschwitz stands on its own: “The truth is, I haven’t got the words to consider what my work was like in telling the story of those who suffered Auschwitz. I feel I have no right to compare.”

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