Alistair Cooke Special to Air on PBS Masterpiece Contemporary, November 23

Filth is still available for viewing through this Sunday on PBS's site at this link. If you've missed the film, starring Julie Walters, it is certainly worth watching.

This Sunday PBS Masterpiece Contemporary will show The Unseen Alistair Cooke, former Masterpiece Theatre host. The Unseen Alistair Cooke: A Masterpiece Special chronicles Cooke's decades in America, friendships with Hollywood icons, celebrated journalism career and years as host of Masterpiece Theatre. In addition, you can sign up for a free copy of Reporting America by Alistair Cooke. Click here to find out how.

God on Trial Airs Tonight

"You will weep, but you will also think. And although the weeping will stop fairly soon after the credits role, with any luck, the thinking will not."

The reviews are in and God on Trial is a critical hit. The San Francisco Chronicle calls the film challenging to watch:

"Frank Cottrell Boyce has crafted a brilliant script, which doesn't only look at why God would inflict such horrible things on the Jews while allowing Hitler and his henchmen to live. Although specifically about Jewish prisoners during World War II, the film has universal appeal in the fundamental questions of existence that every human being has to ask, even minimally, at one point or other in his or her life."

Comments from The Los Angeles Times:

"That [the actors] are wonderful, riveting and at times difficult to watch is no surprise, and if their utter Britishness -- no attempts at other European accents here -- is a bit jarring at first, it is soon forgotten. For although the various arguments made during "God on Trial" never deviate from the specific concerns of the Chosen People, larger questions crowd the drama's edges like the silent, rapt men who follow the trial from their bunks.

The nature and existence of God, the nature and necessity of faith, the role humans occupy in the universe and, most important, how to reconcile the idea of a loving deity with the ongoing tragedy of war and genocide.

They are big topics addressed with a striking lack of sentimentality, quite a feat considering the setting. You will weep, but you will also think. And although the weeping will stop fairly soon after the credits role, with any luck, the thinking will not."

The Edge from The Boston Herald declares that this brilliant movie feels like a play.

"“The reason why you do something about the Holocaust is to find out if you can do something about evil,” [Executive Producer] Redhead said. “The civilizing acts of conducting a trial in the face of evil can give shape and meaning to life.”

Life loses its meaning when children are snatched from parents’ arms and sons are forced to dig their mothers’ graves. As the prisoners relay their stories, viewers learn of a world that is no more, a world gone mad."

On First Things, Anthony Sacramone describes the film as compelling:

"And if you think this tale is intended for Jews alone, don’t tell that to Frank Cottrell Boyce, from whose pen the intelligent and provocative script flowed. Boyce, whose previous scripts include Welcome to Sarajevo and Hillary and Jackie, is not even Jewish but a believing Catholic. He drew inspiration for his drama from an event depicted by Elie Wiesel in his play The Trial of God. Wiesel contends he had witnessed such a trial as a child in the death camps."

Telegraph UK: Interview with Anthony Sher, who played Akiba, a Polish Rabbi.

The film airs tonight on PBS Masterpiece Contemporary at 9 pm EST. If you missed seeing it the first time, or would like to view it again, you can view the video from November 10 until November 16 on PBS. Click here.

God on Trial, November 9th on PBS

When I invited a group of friends to view the PBS screener of God on Trial, no one expressed interest. The holocaust was just too depressing they said. Having lost three male relatives in a Japanese concentration camp, including my grandfather, I felt I HAD to view this film to honor their memory. While it was not an easy drama to watch, I was riveted. I have already seen the screener twice and intend to view it again. There are too few occasions in one's life when a television drama this intelligent and important comes along, and I urge every parent to watch it with their children and every teacher to show it to their class. The lessons of the holocaust and the evils perpetrated by the Nazis must not be lost, and I am afraid that this cataclysmic event is already becoming a dim memory. As importantly, this script is an exploration of man's faith and relationship with God in a way that make one reexamine one's own faith or reaffirm it. We hear many viewpoints and I found myself debating along with the men, and wondering if I would be as emotionally involved in such a discussion hours before my death. Before I knew it, this tense, tightly directed drama was over.

The film is based on the unconfirmed story that a group of Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners consisting of mostly educators, lawyers, and scientists, convened a rabbinical court to put God on trial for abandoning his chosen people. Half the prisoners are spending their last night on earth, but due to the Nazi's cruel methods of choosing their victims, none of them knows who will die in the gas chambers the next day.

The acting is superb. Familiar actors like Rupert Graves (above), Jack Shepherd, (above), Stellan Skarsgård, Stephen Dillane (left), Blake Ritson, and Dominic Cooper (right) are barely recognizable with their shaved heads and wearing prison garb. I imagine all of them must have jumped on the chance to act in such a meaty and riveting story. I was particularly struck by Stephen Dillane's portrayal of Schmidt, a well-educated rabbi. He exuded the same quiet intelligence in this role as he did as Thomas Jefferson in John Adams.

This important film airs on Sunday, November 9th, on the 70th anniversary of Kristellnacht. The video will also stream online the full week after the broadcast.

• PBS Masterpiece Contemporary: The Actors and Characters

• BBC Press Office - find a full synopsis of the story, a behind the scenes video, and full description of the characters and the actors who played them.

• Purchase the DVD at the PBS shop

• Yes, We Really Did Put God on Trial: Wiesel