Fortuitous Timing: A Conversation with ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ Producer Claire Mundell

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an event series inspired by the real-life story of Jewish Holocaust survivors Lali and Gita Sokolov. Lali (Jonah Hauer-King) arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, and shortly after arrival, he was made one of the tätowierer (tattooists), charged to ink identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms. One day, he meets Gita (Anna Próchniak) when tattooing her prisoner number on her arm. They experience love at first sight, and so begins a courageous, unforgettable, and human story. Under constant guard from a volatile Nazi SS officer Baretzki (Jonas Nay), Lali and Gita became determined to keep each other alive.

Around 60 years later, Lali (Harvey Keitel) meets novice writer Heather Morris (Melanie Lynskey). Recently widowed, Lali finds the courage to tell the world his story. In recounting his story to Heather, Lali, in his 80s, faces the traumatic ghosts of his youth and relives his memories of falling in love in the most horrific of places.

When all is lost, how does one find hope and love for that matter? It’s unimaginable, especially under the horrific circumstances and events that took place in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps during World War Two. The same can be said for what is happening in the world right now; there are no words. Yet, stories and recounting history (accurately) is what can bring us together. And that’s what Lali Sokolov’s story did and continues to do, through author Heather Morris’ bestselling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz. And the foundation of his story, and retelling his story is that of love and hope.

Producer Claire Mundell immediately found herself drawn to this thematic line of the resilience and survival of Lali and his love for his wife Gita. With great determination and quite possibly a dose of fate, Claire took on the biggest creative challenge of her career, adapting the bestselling novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Claire Mundell spoke with Script about the whimsical journey to acquiring the book rights, knowing out of the gate the story would be best formatted for TV, to bringing on key creatives from her team at Synchronicity Films to director Tali Shalom-Ezer and the icon that is Barbara Streisand, and what she hopes audiences take away from watching the series.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Sadie Dean: How did you initially come across the book, to then acquiring the rights, and what spoke to you as a storyteller and as a producer in that you knew you had to make this series?

Claire Mundell: We found the book back in 2018. It was a best seller in Australia. And we became aware of it when it entered the Sunday Times bestseller list. And very often those books, when they get into our bestseller list, they're usually already optioned. But this book, we discovered was as yet not optioned. And it hadn't been published in the US at that time. So, it was very fortuitous timing.

And I was very aware when I traveled for work as a producer, I would see people reading the book. And I always pay attention to what people are reading, especially when you see it again and again and again. And I spoke to a few people that I knew people who had read it. And if they hadn't read it, then they knew someone who had, and it was growing organically by word of mouth and storming up the charts.

We got a copy of the book, we read it. And we're really, as a team…we were blown away by just the inspiring nature of Lali's story. He's so inspiring and the courage that it took for him to share his story with the world given how many Holocaust survivors could never speak of what had happened to them. But the specificity of their story was something else.

The fact that Lali was a tattooist, and that effectively made him employed by the SS as a prisoner, but as someone making that - I wouldn't call it a choice because what choice was there in that place - but it was an act of survival and the fact that he could meet Gita there, and he could, I guess find that within himself to connect with another human being and really, they became each other's reason to survive. And so that was just so special to have a love story play out in one of the most notorious concentration camps, a death factory, a place of unimaginable horror. And yet these two young people could find it within themselves to resist being dehumanized 100% because they still could connect with another human being. I thought that was so special. And obviously, the popularity of the book brought that out, the fact that people were reading it everywhere.

And so, we very niftily got in touch with the publishers, we got in touch with Heather Morris's agent. In fact, we tracked Heather Morris down herself in Melbourne. [laughs] My colleague, Ruth Underwood, who's our wonderful story producer lives in Melbourne, and I asked her to go and find Heather Morris and tell Heather Morris why we were the perfect people to adapt her book. Through a stroke of synchronicity literally, the next morning, after I had that conversation with Ruth, a free newspaper, popped through her letterbox and the headline of that newspaper was, ‘Bestselling local author in village hall talk.’ And it was Heather Morris talking about the book. 

And Ruth, as it turns out at that time, lived a few streets away from Heather Morris, although we had no idea of this. And she literally went to the talk the next day, and went to Heather Morris at the end of the session and said, 'This is going to sound very bizarre, but I work for a company based in Glasgow in the UK. And they are talking to your publishers in London and your manager in LA. And we would really love to adapt your book.' So, we literally had hands around the world trying to get rights to this book. [laughs]

We were very clear though with our approach. We knew what we wanted to do with the subject matter. We brought Jacquelin Perske on board as our head writer and fellow exec producer. And Jacquelin was really inspired by Heather Morris's epilogue in the book where she describes the first time she ever met the real Lali, and that really opened a gateway of a way to approach the story…the way that we can tell the story was to frame it through the means by which the story came to be, which is Heather Morris sitting in Lali Sokolov's apartment for three years - three or four times a week she went to visit him. 

And she became a close family friend, she was with him a few hours before his death. And the final thing she said to him was that she would never stop trying to tell his story. And that just seemed to us such an amazing way to access his memories and to really make it very clear that we're telling one man's story, as a real portrait of his memory of his time there. It's his history, rather than the history, if you like.

Sadie: That’s such a beautiful story. It gave me chills just hearing how that all came together - it was just meant to be. With you leading the charge and putting this incredible creative team together, what kind of voices and vision you were looking for to tell the story. I feel like when creating and making documentaries and true stories there’s a responsibility we have to the living or the dead, to tell the story accurately, but with also a lot of care and respect to what was said and done.

Claire: 100% - the first thing we did when we optioned the novel was we visited Auschwitz-Birkenau. We wanted to pay our respects, we wanted to go and see the real place. And then we proceeded to go many times, I think I've been six times now to the museum. We took all of our heads of department there before they started work on the project. So that again, they could see the place we were trying to depict - it's a very big challenge to try to depict Auschwitz, it's almost an impossible challenge. We had to do what we could to create as authentic an environment as possible for Lali to tell his story within. Because his memories are what we are literally seeing.

Everyone understood that this was not an ordinary project and that the level of responsibility was huge. And the level of respect was enormous, because these are real people's lives. And we have a responsibility to tell it as honestly and as respectfully as we can.

The tone was a very big talking point, we discussed tone at every turn. How dark could we go with it? How dark would an audience be prepared to stick with? And how on earth could we tell the story without also being dark? And trying to depict some of the horrors that occurred there.

I think when you are adapting a mainstream novel, something that has really cut through the way that the Tattooist has done, because today it has sold well in excess of 13 million copies. But the adaptation, we are told, will probably increase that number by another 60%. So that's a lot of people. And I think that mainstream popular drama has incredible power to reach ordinary people for one of a better word. We sit in a spectrum of projects in the subject matter, which includes incredible documentaries, and arthouse indie films, there's enough room on this spectrum for every different sort of telling of this story.

Being able to cut through to, perhaps an unexpected audience, maybe an audience that you wouldn't imagine would come to a story about the Holocaust, but they are coming to it. And they have come to it just as they did with the book, because of the emotion of Lali and Gita’s story and I think the way they have inspired people. If you can find love in a place like that, and you can survive, not that it was as simple as that, but the fact that they did, I think is hugely inspiring to people in their lives. And I think that that is the reason that the book has captured so many people.

Sadie: You kind of touched on this, this could either have been a documentary or feature film, what was in your gut saying this had to be told as a TV series?

Claire: I think in my gut, I knew from the very beginning that the story was too big to be a film. We would have lost so much incredible scale and scope of Lali’s story and his memories if we had only made a 90-minute film. So, it felt from the very beginning that there was a long-form drama to be made. And at that time in 2018, there were not very many TV dramas in this arena. Now, of course, strangely, now at the same time, a number have come out in the same year.

But back in 2018, for a long time we were the only one. I think we probably took a bit longer than everyone else because we wrote all six scripts upfront before we shot a single frame. So as soon as we began developing the project with SKY [Studios], we all agreed that it would take longer but that we really needed to see the six scripts, we needed to see the shape of the show. We brought on two wonderful writers Evan Placey and Gabbie Asher, who wrote episodes three and four. But back in 2018, making a television show, in this subject matter seemed like a very unusual thing to do, because it wasn't an area that people were looking at. Of course, there are World War Two dramas and there are period dramas, but I just felt in my gut that the popularity of the book spoke to a mainstream audience and that there was an opportunity there, as I said earlier, to reach an audience, that may not necessarily come to a nonfiction book about the Holocaust.

And for me, that is the power of popular drama. If you're going to make drama, which takes a long time, it takes many years of your life, to make something that might have an impact on people and will feel like it will stay with people. It’s very humbling and very gratifying to know that the audience have really come to the show - the figures for the show are amazing. And of course, we had a global launch. So people are talking about it everywhere.

And I think that the power of the emotion is really pulling people through. And although it is a difficult watch in places, and it is harrowing, what's really very encouraging is that people are staying with the show, and they're binging the whole thing. I never thought it would be a binge show at all. I thought it would be too much for people. But what that says to me is that people are really sticking with the central spine of the love story and the emotion in it. 

And also, the wonderful actors that we have - Harvey Keitel and Melanie Lynskey. Hans Zimmer's music - it's amazing, really just to see it all come together, because it was a long road. And it was full of jeopardy and challenges, but it's really very emotional for us as a team, because everyone on the team put their heart and soul into it. Everybody knew that they were working on something that was probably the most important thing they're ever going to make in their career. And Tali [Shalom-Ezer] our director, who directed all six episodes like a warrior, she poured her heart and soul into it. We really hope the audience continue to feel the same way about it, and the Emmy voters too.

Sadie: I'm sure being just a part of this, as difficult as the subject matter is, it's so much bigger than you and that you have to follow through and see this all the way till the end.

Claire: You really do. And producing is problem-solving, and it’s literally willing things into existence. It’s sort of like channeling energy and really pushing something to happen. And I think that on this project, there were problems to solve every, probably every 10 minutes, if not more. But I think one of the most gratifying things as a producer is when you stand, as we did, we stood in a field in Slovakia, a farmer's field, with just ourselves, six months ahead of us before we had to film - it was probably more like four months - and we had to imagine, ‘We are going to be able to build this set. We're going to be able to create this environment in the way that we need to. We're going to do this.’ 84 days worth of shooting, and four months of prep. It's definitely the biggest challenge I've ever faced in my career, but also the most rewarding thing I've ever made.

Sadie: That’s incredible, 84 days – that’s surprising you did all of that in that time frame. I feel like you needed more than that.

Claire: Yeah, we had enough material to make more episodes. Lali’s life was so incredible. There were other parts of his story we didn't have time to go into, but we could easily have made seven or eight episodes here. The love story was the key spine that we were following. But I think in terms of executive producing and producing it, it taught me so much about the craft, it taught me so much about how being inspired is so important in a project. And I think people really want to be involved in meaningful work. They want to make shows that will not just stay with people for a week or so, but really stay with people and really, perhaps encourage people to go on a journey, and learn more about this subject matter. We’re just program makers, we're not doing anything terribly special. But if we can move people, and we can get people talking, and we can inspire people to go and visit the museum and see for themselves, then that feels like a really good use of popular drama.

Sadie: That kind of segues into my next question and getting this incredible talent, but getting Barbra Streisand to write a song, she's never done TV before, touching her heartstrings in that way. What was that conversation that collaboration too and getting to the heart of what she's bringing to the music for the show?

Claire: It was incredible. I mean, bringing Barbra Streisand to this project was literally beyond my wildest dreams. And yet, now it feels like so destined. I can't imagine who else would be good enough to end the series. And that began as a very pure creative idea born out of a wonderful musical collaboration with our composers Hans and Kara [Talve], and our score producer, Russell Emanuel, and our director Tali and myself, we were discussing all the cues for the whole show. And every single cue is very unique to each scene, of course. And so, we came to the final cue, which was a very sad meeting, because we had such an amazing process - we really loved that process. It felt like therapy every morning going on Zoom to discuss the music, it was so beautiful. And so, we rather reluctantly, faced the fact that we had to discuss the last music cue. But what would the last music cue be? And how could it be better than all the other cues that have gone before? And yet it had to be better because it's the last cue. So how do we improve on what else is there?

And then, at one point, earlier in the process, we had discussed whether or not we could do a song of any sort. And on a gut level, I think we were all a little bit like, ‘Ooh, not sure a song is right. How would we do so?’ But in this particular moment, we were thinking, ‘Well, how do we distinguish this last cue?’ And the idea of a song came up again. I said, ‘If we were to do a song, threading that needle is so narrow, we would have to get the best female vocalist on the planet to do that, and her and only her.’ And I looked in the camera on Zoom to Kara, she started laughing, and she said, ‘Do you mean Barbra Streisand?’ [laughs] I said, ‘Absolutely. That's exactly who I mean. We have to go get Barbra Streisand.’ It was 6:30 in the morning for me, I was in my pajamas on the sofa on a Zoom call…so maybe I was not quite fully awake. Maybe I was literally still dreaming. But we all laughed for about 10 minutes, because it was such a crazy idea.

And then, as has been the way of this project, we sort of went, ‘Well, actually, maybe we should just ask because you never know.’ And artists of all statures and ages and legends, they want to do good work. And we have a really great show. So, we should ask the question and see what happens. And so basically, that is what we did. [laughs]

And it happened in such a short timeframe. It was like it was destined because we were in the sound mix, we needed to get that song recorded. And so, Russell, the score producer spoke to Barbara's manager, and we sent him links to the show. Her manager fell in love with the idea, he thought it was an amazing idea for her. But we all knew it was a long shot. And just in the way that you do with a creative process, we just went with the process. [It was] suggested that we should reach out to some of the people that she likes to work with. 

So, we reached out to Walter Afanasieff, who's an incredible songwriter she works with, and also Charlie Midnight, he's a wonderful lyricist. We showed them the show and we asked them, ‘Do you think this was an idea that could fly?’ And we just sort of reached out bit by bit and eventually put this song together which is based on the love theme.

And when everyone felt it was ready, it went to Barbara and she loved it, and watched the show. She sent Tali and I each a handwritten letter just explaining how she had watched the show and how it moved her and how important she felt it was especially at this time when antisemitism is on the rise more than ever. And here is one man's story that we can share. And maybe it will help provide a sort of aspect of what that survivor story was really like and what it took to survive.

So, I think it's probably the most magical thing that's ever happened to me as a producer. I feel very honored and very blessed and humbled to have been working on this project. I really hope that everyone's work on it somehow gets recognized and cuts through. 

But more importantly than that, I just hope that people do take it to their hearts, because we as a team, poured so much love into this because we just wanted that message to get out there that Lali says in episode one, ‘This is a love story.’ And even though it is a love story and a place of hell, I think that is the overall message of the show. We have to remember as human beings that we have it within our capability to connect with other human beings. We have that side of us, as well as the dark side. And we have a choice we can make. That's what I hope people take from the show. And I think that's what a popular drama like this can do.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is available to stream on Peacock.