It's difficult to comprehend how events like the Holocaust could have occurred, especially considering what we now know about the world of 20th-century Europe. It’s easy to forget that information didn't spread as quickly or broadly back then. News regarding the Nazi death camps, which resulted in the deaths of six million Jews, didn't reach the wider world until some time after the atrocities began. The accounts might have been delayed even further if it weren’t for the bravery of two escapees from Chelmo, Poland, Germany’s first extermination facility, who brought their stories to light. Writer-director Lior Geller tells the story of Solomon Wiener (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Michael Podchlebnik (Jeremy Newmark Jones), former gravediggers who escaped the camp and contacted a rabbi (Anton Lesser) in Grabow, Poland, connected to the Polish resistance. Solomon shared what was happening at Chelmo, becoming the first reported testimony about Nazi actions against Jewish people. This information was then smuggled to London, where it was broadcast by the BBC in June 1942, finally alerting the world to the horrors unfolding. One would expect this previously untold story to be a powerful film. However, when compared with other Holocaust films, this one falls short. The main problem seems to be that the narrative focuses too much on the Nazis’ already-familiar cruel and inhumane practices, which take up almost the entire first half of the movie. While showing these disturbing events is important for context, it feels drawn out and overshadows the prisoners' courageous escape, their emotional descriptions of life and death in the “work camp,” and their exposure of the Germans’ lies about the facility. The film also suffers from technical issues like sound quality, lighting, editing, and a strange mix of German and English dialogue. Fortunately, the strong performances from the three main actors and an affecting musical score help to compensate for these flaws, and the movie improves as it goes along. “The World Will Tremble” isn’t a bad film, but other releases offer more impactful portrayals of this tragedy, including “Sophie’s Choice” (1982), “Schindler’s List” (1993), “Remember” (2016), “The Zone of Interest” (2023) and “Lee” (2024), as well as the TV miniseries "Holocaust" (1978). Stories from this period are vital and deserve to be handled with care; it’s disappointing that this one didn't quite live up to its potential.

Source on TMDB