Son of Saul had its U.S. premiere at a special Film Comment Presents screening on October 6, and screens again October 11. Tonight, director László Nemes and actor Geza Rohrig will participate in a NYFF Live talk. To help provide context for the film’s subject matter, we’re republishing this conversation between J. Hoberman and Look of Silence director Joshua Oppenheimer about Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah from July 2013.

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Welcome to the first episode of FILM COMMENT’s podcast providing an in-depth discussion of a DVD reviewed in our most recent issue. More than just listening along, we encourage you to watch along—either for the first time or as a repeat viewing—and leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Our first episode is about Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah: a daunting but nevertheless essential film experience. We brought together critic J. Hoberman (read his review of The Criterion Collection box set of Shoah here) and filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, whose new film The Act of Killing concerns the Indonesian genocide in the Sixties. He’s also written on the subject of documentary and genocide. Their conversation touches upon the many issues raised by (and the many ways into) Shoah.