Watch David Strathairn in the trailer for Remember This

David Strathairn in “Remember This”. Directed by Jeff Hutchens and Derek Goldman, produced by Eva Anisko. (Photo by Jeff Hutchens / Courtesy Sobremesa Media)

In a virtuoso solo performance, Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn (Nomadland, Good Night, and Good Luck, Lincoln) portrays Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant World War II hero and Holocaust witness. After surviving the devastation of the Blitzkrieg, Karski swears allegiance to the Polish Underground and risks his life to carry the first eyewitness reports of war-torn Poland to the Western world, and ultimately, the Oval Office. Escaping a Gestapo prison, bearing witness to the despair of the Warsaw ghetto and confronted by the inhumanity of a death camp, Karski endures unspeakable mental anguish and physical torture to stand tall in the halls of power and speak the truth. Strathairn captures the complexity and legacy of this self-described “insignificant, little man” whose timely story of moral courage and individual responsibility can still shake the conscience of the world.

The film takes a bold, elegant and expressionistic approach to cinematically transform the original stage play on which Remember This is based and to provide an intensity and intimate theatricality rarely experienced on screen. A minimalist visual aesthetic and the simplicity of the space—a table and two chairs, shot in black-and-white—captures Strathairn’s dynamic one-man performance in all of its nuance and power, as he not only becomes Jan Karski, but channels over thirty characters from Karski’s extraordinary life. Filmed in the shooting style of a continuous shot, the audience is drawn into Karski’s world and memories, and invited to experience the journey along with him as though Jan Karski is speaking directly to all of us across time, space and history.

The film is the directorial debut of Jeff Hutchens (American Pain, The Armor of Light) and Derek Goldman. Written by Clark Young and Derek Goldman.

Remember This is in select US cinemas on 27th January 2023.