The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The Tattooist of Auschwitz launched on Sky Atlantic and Peacock in May 2024 across six episodes, adapted from Heather Morris's 2018 novel of the same name, which itself drew on years of conversations the New Zealand writer conducted with the late Lali Sokolov in Melbourne. The screenplay is by Jacquelin Perske; Israeli filmmaker Tali Shalom-Ezer (Princess, My Days of Mercy) directs every episode. The production is by Synchronicity Films and Peacock and was filmed in Slovakia and the Czech Republic with extensive cooperation from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

The cast is led by Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid, World on Fire) as the young Lali Sokolov, alongside Polish actress Anna Próchniak as Gita Furmanova and German actor Jonas Nay (Deutschland 83) as SS-Rottenführer Stefan Baretzki. Harvey Keitel plays the older Lali in the present-day framing scenes; Melanie Lynskey plays Heather Morris. Cinematography is by Tom Townend; the score is by Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve, who incorporate original Yiddish-language compositions throughout.

British and US critics responded with care (The Times, The Guardian and Variety singled out the central performances) and the series prompted a measured public response from Holocaust historians, who debated certain compressions of the historical record. Sky reported the series among its best-performing original commissions of 2024.