'It's a story about humanity'

I suppose both of you had to physically transform for it, for these roles. And Anna, can you tell me a little bit about what it’s like having to physically and emotionally kind of immerse yourself in a story like this? I remember the first moment when I got my my head shaved and I remember when for the first time I look at myself in the mirror with no hair, in a costume with with the two it was it was very powerful, very profound and like what you were saying as well. When you are in a situation like this you’re filming for a long period of time. You’re researching for a long period of time for this too. How do you find yourself like emotionally escaping that that dark place when when it is coming to the end of the day, like how do you, how do you mentally recover from these. It had its challenges. I think I wanted so much to to make sure that we were showing this story the utmost respect. And I think naively I thought the best way of doing that was was purely by showing professionalism and focus and knowing that we had a job to do. And that was the best way of serving the story and and honouring Lally and and his life. But I think to to expect there not to be this like profound impact on you given, as you said, your head being shaved and that the the prison uniform you’re putting on every day and going to that set is very impactful. And I think crew and cast felt that. And I think, you know, we had to look after each other. I don’t know if you ever really let go of it. At the end of the day, I think it was it. It does stay with you because no matter how much you tell yourself that this is a safe and controlled environment, I think you’re it. It’s just I think you’d have to be quite numb for for it not to be quite impactful. And they did such a brilliant job in in trying to to to bring this place to life and it felt so eerie and so frightening and so yeah, in a way I think while we were doing it, it was just a case of of trying to manage our own our own stamina and and look after each other and possibly not step out of it too much. So it’s it’s something that is still fresh in the minds of so many. We felt this responsibility, but I think it’s just, I mean we have to keep telling stories like this. We we have to respect the personal stories. We have to remember and draw our attention to, to the victims of Holcast, the Holcast survivors, and I mean the we have to remember what we can and be aware of that there is a lot that we cannot and the fact that we can tell this story, Lali and Gita’s story is an honour and it should remind us of all the stories that we cannot tell. It’s just so much more to it. This is not something that happens in a vacuum. I think it. I think one thing I’m really proud about the series is that telling it over six hours gives you some space to look at these lives before the war, during and after. You know, so often these stories end when a camp is liberated or at the end of the war and there’s some closure. And any kind of traumatic experience, as we know, doesn’t work like that. It’s you carry it for a lifetime. The the physical scars are there, the emotional scars are there and and as you say, it’s passed on to the next generation and and even the next one. So I think examining that and and shining a light on that was important to us. What is the message that you would like viewers to get from this, from this series? It’s a story about humanity and it’s a story about choosing love. I think it’s a very specific context. And yet I think there are universal themes of what happens when we do lose our humanity. And so I hope that it can be both the celebration of two lives and an honouring of all the lives that were lost and also a message and and an advocacy for for love and for humanity and ultimately for for peace. The ultimate message of the show for me is that we can choose love over hate, and the love is the strongest power we we have the an access to.