Scots movie boss signs Hollywood stars to bring the powerful story of the Tattooist of Auschwitz to our TV screens
Filmmaker on telling Holocaust ‘love story’
As a young girl, Claire Mundell always dreamed of creating stories like the ones she enjoyed on regular trips with her dad to her local cinema in Anniesland, Glasgow.
Today, her small, independent Scottish production company is behind a high-end, star-filled TV adaptation of The Tattooist Of Auschwitz, which premieres globally this week.
“I don’t think there’s any other Scottish production company that’s made a TV series as big as this, with this level of talent,” said Claire, who founded Synchronicity Films in 2005.
“It was a big project to take on but we’re a small company based in Glasgow with big ambitions.”
Last weekend, Claire once again found herself gazing up in wonder at a big screen, only this time at her show’s premiere at The Museum of Jewish Heritage, a living memorial to Holocaust victims, in New York.
“At the premiere in Manhattan we had relatives of Holocaust survivors and victims in the audience, and several Holocaust survivors attended the Bafta screening, so both were very special and emotional,” Claire added.
Her biggest project to date, the TV adaptation of Heather Morris’s book of the same name is based on the real-life testimony of Lale Sokolov (played by British actor Jonah HauerKing), a Slovakian Jew whose job while imprisoned in Auschwitz was to tattoo identification numbers onto his fellow prisoners’ arms.
This is how he met and fell in love with Gita (played by Polish-born Anna Próchniak). Their love drove them to fight to keep each other alive.
Since the book’s publication, Lale and Gita’s love story has inspired millions of readers around the world, while honouring the 1.1 million people killed at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
With a strong record of turning bestselling novels into critically acclaimed TV series – including Helen FitzGerald’s The Cry (2018) and Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies (2022) – Claire quickly pitched for the rights to Heather’s book when it started to creep up bestseller lists in 2018.
““Our strategy has always been to get in early on rights for a book we think will be a hit,” said Claire. “I knew we had to act fast so we optioned The Tattooist Of Auschwitz two days before it was published in the US to avoid competing with bigger studios.
“We knew it would be a challenge but we went after it and got it.”
The impressive cast includes Oscarnominated actor Harvey Keitel, whose parents are Jewish immigrants, as an elderly Lale, opposite Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey as Heather Morris, the nurse and aspiring writer to whom Lale told his story shortly after his wife Gita’s death.
“We needed an elderly actor to play Lale who had emotional gravitas but also a sense of humour or mischievousness. I hoped the script would chime with Harvey and his performance was extraordinary,” said Claire.
“We unexpectedly connected over Scotland. As soon as I opened my mouth, he asked if I was from Greenock (I told him he was close) as he had fond memories of filming a drama there.”
Having Barbra Streisand record a song written especially for the show’s end credits was another coup. Claire said: “We needed something special and Barbra was our first choice. She watched some of the show and said she was in. Hearing her record the song at Abbey Road Studios was a spin-tingling moment I’ll never forget.”
Authentically telling the story of Holocaust survivors was vital to Claire, whose team visited Auschwitz Birkenau and brought on board historical and cultural Jewish consultant Naomi Gryn. The six-part series filmed in Bratislava portrays the everyday horrors faced by those imprisoned in the Nazi death camp. Claire ensured her cast and crew had access to mental health support while recreating the harrowing and horrifying atrocities.
She says it is vital Holocaust stories continue to be told and the power of The Tattooist Of Auschwitz is that it shows a rare glimmer of hope in history’s darkest chapter. As Lale says as he begins sharing his memories with Heather: “This is a love story.”
Claire said: “That message of hope and love, and the impossibility of finding love in one of the most notorious concentration camps, is a big part of what draws people to this story.
“I hope audiences will be moved by what they’ve seen and be reminded of what we are all capable of, and have compassion for others.”
While her work on The Tattooist Of Auschwitz promises to turn heads in the industry and raise her profile to new heights, Claire is determined to stay to true her Glasgow roots by keeping her small but talented team of seven staff based in her home city.
“I’m very proud to be based in Glasgow. It’s kept us grounded but hasn’t stopped us developing big projects that have international reach,” she said. “It’s important for Scottish talent and production companies not to be dissuaded from thinking big just because you’re not based in London or LA.
“If you’re prepared to put the work in, and have ideas that will connect with people internationally, then anything is possible.”