“The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” an adaptation of the controversial bestselling novel of the same name, is coming to Peacock this May, and the network just released the first teaser for the limited series.
From just a minute of footage, it’s already clear that the show, helmed by Israeli director Tali Shalom Ezer, will tug at the heartstrings — and not just because of the horrific, heartbreaking subject matter, but because of the acting caliber of its cast, especially the two Jewish men playing Lali Solov, the tattooist of Auschwitz himself — Jonah Hauer-King (“The Little Mermaid”) and Harvey Keitel, who plays the octogenarian Lali as he recounts his story to writer Heather Morris (played by Melanie Lynskey, herself an incredible talent).
Watching Hauer-King look impossibly haunted and pained in the teaser, you barely hear him speak in his Auschwitz prisoner garb, but his face and body say so much — there’s exhaustion, trauma, pain, determination, and then an impossible light when he catches sight of Gita, the woman he falls in love with, and who he ends up marrying, played by Anna Próchniak.
It’s Keitel who narrates the trailer. “I was a young man, in a terrible place. This is what it was, every day, but I found something there — someone,” he tells Lynskey, referring to his future wife, Gita, who you can see in the trailer hoarsely whispering to Lali, each word bitten out, “We must keep living, whatever it takes.”
The trailer ends with Keitel’s tear-filled eyes. We get a taste of the show’s powerful soundtrack, co-written by award-winning Jewish composer Hans Zimmer. We also get to see the brutality of Auschwitz, and the exacting way the camp was recreated on set.
“The Tattoist of Auschwitz” premiers on Peacock on May 2.
