Writer and director Lior Geller explores the depths of human cruelty and the heights of human resiliency in “The World Will Tremble”, a historical drama that tells another heart-wrenching yet inspirational true story from the Holocaust. Deftly handled with accuracy and urgency, Geller’s film is both a powerful testimony and a harrowing indictment that doesn’t gaze directly upon the horror but it doesn’t hide from it either. The results are astonishing. “The World Will Tremble” is the first great movie of 2025.

With the help of historian Dr. Na’ama Shik, Geller spent ten years researching the horrifying history of the Chełmno extermination camp in west-central Poland. The rural Chełmno was the Nazi’s first killing center of its kind, over time resulting in the deaths of nearly 200,000 Jews. Much of Geller’s movie takes place in and around the camp, bringing to light just some of the atrocities that took the lives of so many.

But the film also tells the extraordinary true story of Michał Podchlebnik and Solomon Weiner, two prisoners who became the first to escape the Chełmno camp. Even more, they would go on to offer the outside world the very first eyewitness accounts of the mass murder taking place at the hands of the Germans. Their testimonies were smuggled to London and broadcast on BBC radio on June 26, 1942 and later in the New York Times on July 2, 1942. These stand as the first official reports on the Holocaust.

“The World Will Tremble” leans heavily on the deeply piercing performances from its cast, specifically from Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Jeremy Neumark Jones, and Charlie MacGechan. At the Chełmno extermination camp, a select group of Jewish prisoners work at gunpoint, digging mass graves and filling them with dead bodies of Jews slaughtered inside large trucks serving as mobile gas chambers. Among the workers is Solomon Wiener (Jackson-Cohen) whose only focus is on surviving. Some prisoners, including Wolf (MacGechan) want to plan an escape. But Solomon resists, naively believing they’ll be okay as long as they follow orders.

Geller’s approach to the storytelling is noteworthy in that he puts a strong emphasis on faces. Entire scenes play out with the camera focusing on the faces of the prisoners as they’re forced to do the unimaginable. Geller conveys so much through the pained expressions of his characters – the terror, the trauma, the overwhelming sorrow. It’s a strategic choice that asks a lot from his actors but that pays off in powerful ways.

As the barbarism intensifies right before his eyes, Solomon finally faces the grim reality of their situation. At the right time and in a moment of courage and desperation, Solomon and Michael Podchlebnik (Jones) make their move. The two jump from a moving truck and flee into the Rzuchowski forest amid a hail of German bullets. The film’s second half follows their daring attempt to escape as they navigate rugged terrain, hunger, the cold, and Nazi patrols.

To no surprise Geller takes a few liberties with the historical account to help develop the drama. But he never loses his grip on the truth that lies at the heart of the real story. In fact, he goes to great lengths to represent events accurately and with startling clarity, whether it’s the sinister ruse used by the Nazis to lure groups of captured Jews to their deaths or Michael Podchlebnik’s devastating discovery concerning the fate of his family.

There’s also impressive craftsmanship on display, from the terrific use of locations to the artful camerawork. Geller works hand-in-hand with cinematographer Ivan Vatsov to add a strong visual component to the storytelling. The use of nature, the emotive color palette, the array of tracking shots and trucking shots – it all adds an enriching level of depth and detail.

Movies about the Holocaust are by nature difficult to watch and they understandably face the most scrutiny. But as memory has almost fully turned into history, I grow increasingly grateful that filmmakers are still telling stories from that indelibly dark time in human history. With “The World Will Tremble”, Lior Geller joins the talented chorus of cinematic voices who responsibly ensure the Holocaust is remembered for the evil that it was and for the generational pain it has inflicted. “The World Will Tremble” opens in select theaters March 14th.