The Survivor stars Ben Foster in the lead role of Harry Haft; Credits: The New York Times

The Survivor is the tale of a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz who lived through utter terrors but decided to find a way back to himself and a good life along with other survivors of the particular hell. The film is brought forward by director Barry Levinson and stars Ben Foster in the role of the protagonist who is looking forward to a better life. 

The prisoners of Auschwitz were made to fight in vicious boxing matches for the entertainment of an elite audience. But as the survivors fight their way through the imprisonment, they finally find a way to evade their captors. Now, they are on the journey to find people from their past and also look for reasons to keep on fighting and surviving, but in the much bigger ring of life. 

The actor and the director, Foster and Levinson, sat with Collider for a chat about the story of the film and how they can draw parallels between the tale with the Holocaust. The actor-director duo had already worked together earlier, with their introductions going all the way back to 20 years. 

They talked about the shooting process of the film, how they managed to capture the concentration camp scenes, and how The Survivor took the shape of the moving tale that the film is.

Sharing his process of going through scripts, the director shared that he usually tries to read them as soon as he receives them, but if he is in the middle of shooting a film, he mostly decides to look into it later, so that he can focus on that only one film that he has undertaken.

He explained that the filmmaking business is essentially difficult since new ideas pop up all the time and there is nothing more troublesome than thinking of a good idea when you are already done with filming the scene. Hence, he keeps to only one script at a time so that is all that occupies his mind at any given time. 

Talking of The Survivor, the director admitted that he had never dreamt that he would helm a film like this one day. And yet, the script of the film unlocked a memory in him that he had from when he was pretty young back in 1948 or 1949. 

He explained that when he was a young child, a stranger knocked on their door one day, who apparently happened to be his grandmother's brother. He lived with his grandparents but never knew that his grandmother had a brother. The brother stayed with them for a while on a cot in a corner. 

The person seemed to be greatly disturbed by something and was prone to nightmares. Things kept on moving forward and when the director was about 16 years of age, he remembered his mother mentioning that the person had come from a concentration camp. It was then he realized why the person was kept awake at night. 

The script made him think back to the moment, especially the fact of how highly susceptible his grandmother's brother was to the memories of the concentration camps and how it affected him for years to come. The same could be said of Harry Haft, the protagonist of the show, who found the courage to escape his captivity but the memories and terrors associated with it are much more difficult to escape and evade. 

Even if a survivor is able to live through the specific horrors they endured, the trauma of the situation follows them for a long time and they are not always able to shirk it off themselves. Such trauma is a defining factor of people who have survived imprisonment, concentration camps, wars, and more experiences laden with terrors and pain. 

Hence, when he received the script for the film he thought that there are all these people who are still stuck in their past. Thus, he decided to undertake the project and work on it. 

Ben Foster also shared that when he received the script of the film, he was working on another project and decided to read into it later on. He admitted that he was not immediately drawn to the character of Harry Haft and instead needed to undergo an experience of exploration when it came to playing the role. 

And yet, he mentioned that the story immediately gripped him and he was stunned by the challenges and difficulties the character had to face to move on with his life. It was like going down a spiral that continuously tightens around you, but he shared that he is immensely honored to be considered to play the part of Harry Haft. 

The actor also admitted that it scares him when he has to play characters whose motivations are not out in the open and who are ambiguous in their nature. On the other hand, Haft is extremely clear about where he wants to reach, and while his moral compass is a little misaligned, it is worth mentioning that he has come from a place of great violence. 

Admittedly, the character did not frighten the actor and he simply felt the connection to Hart and decided that he wanted to bring this story into the forefront. The character helped him escape himself as a person and in turn explore a totally different character. viewed on HBO and HBO Max.