2010 | Opera | 2H 40 Min | Not rated

Mieczysław Weinberg’s powerful Holocaust drama Die Passagierin channels his and his family’s ordeals of wartime and Soviet persecution, applying them musically to Zofia Posmysz’s autobiographical novel. The score was praised by Shostakovich for its ‘beauty and greatness’, with a narrative that unfolds on an ocean liner bound for Brazil on which a former Auschwitz guard and one of her Polish prisoners confront impossible moral conflict and harrowing flashbacks in music that is sparse, dark, sardonic and intermittently tender. This acclaimed Bregenz Festival production draws us movingly into the raw unimaginable madness of this imperishable moment in history.

The film is the fourth of six operas being screened at 3pm on the second Sunday of each month - April to September, as part of the 2025 Mangawhai Opera Lovers Film Festival.

Join us for a glass of bubbles and canapes at 1.45pm. There will be a short introduction to the film at the Mangawhai Opera Lovers Film Festival (5-10 minutes at 2pm) before the film is screened. A short, written synopsis of the opera will be provided.

Note the start time is 2pm (1400). Ticket price is $15.