Hagai Levi’s ‘Etty’ Brings Auschwitz Diaries to the Venice Big Screen

Israeli auteur’s six-part series draws from the haunting writings of Etty Hillesum, whose life ended in Auschwitz at 29

Eighty-two years after her death, Etty Hillesum is about to appear on screen in a way that has never happened before. And it’s Hagai Levi — the acclaimed Israeli storyteller behind BeTipul, The Affair, and Scenes from a Marriage — who’s bringing her voice to life.

Levi’s latest project, Etty, will premiere in its entirety at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival this August. All six episodes will screen at the prestigious event, with Austrian actress Julia Windischbauer in the title role. It’s a quiet, piercing story. And it’s already making noise in all the right places.

A voice preserved, a life extinguished

Etty Hillesum wasn’t famous when she died. She was 29, Jewish, and Dutch — one of the millions whose lives were stolen in Auschwitz during World War II. What sets her apart is what she left behind.

Her diaries, discovered posthumously and first published in 1981, revealed a deeply spiritual, introspective mind grappling with evil in real-time. They weren’t written for anyone else. They weren’t meant for publication. That’s partly what makes them so devastating.

By the time she was murdered in 1943, Hillesum had written enough to fill volumes. Her words have since been translated into 18 languages. In some circles, she’s spoken of in the same breath as Anne Frank. But outside of literary or Holocaust education spheres, she remains relatively unknown.

Levi wants to change that.

From BeTipul to Auschwitz: Levi takes on the impossible

Hagai Levi is no stranger to emotional intensity. His breakout series BeTipul (remade as HBO’s In Treatment) revolutionized therapy-based television. The Affair won a Golden Globe. His Scenes from a Marriage remake, starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, screened in Venice just four years ago.

But Etty might be his most emotionally charged project yet.

Why now? Why this story?

Sources close to the production say Levi was drawn to Hillesum’s “capacity to find inner light in the face of unbearable darkness.” In interviews, he’s spoken about being haunted by her diaries — and feeling a responsibility to not dramatize her trauma, but rather to protect her truth.

That’s a tricky line to walk. Levi’s known for psychological subtlety. But with Etty, he’s working with someone else’s interior world. That means restraint. That means precision.

It also means risk.

A new face in a historic role

Casting Etty wasn’t easy. It’s not a glamorous role. It’s not loud. It’s not Oscar bait.

But Julia Windischbauer, the 25-year-old Austrian actress now stepping into those shoes, reportedly stunned Levi and his team with her raw, unadorned audition. She didn’t act the part. She was the part.

Windischbauer has a theater background, not a blockbuster one. That’s intentional. Levi didn’t want a star — he wanted someone who could disappear.

And so far, critics who’ve seen early cuts say she does just that.

One European festival programmer who viewed the full series called her performance “eerily still, like someone mid-prayer, mid-collapse.”

A quiet revolution in how Holocaust stories are told

Holocaust drama isn’t new — it’s a genre with its own clichés. Barbed wire. Sob-filled finales. Predictable arcs.

But Etty avoids all that.

Instead, Levi gives us a diary with breath in it. The series doesn’t track her every movement to the camps. It sits with her. In Amsterdam. In Westerbork. In silence.

Midway through Episode 3, there’s a 7-minute scene with no dialogue. Just Etty, alone, writing.

That’s the heart of the show — not escape or defiance, but reflection. Not survival, but surrender to something bigger.

And that’s what sets Etty apart from other Holocaust narratives.

Six episodes. One premiere. Big stage.

Unlike most series premieres, Etty will screen all six episodes in one go at Venice. That’s a serious commitment — for both organizers and viewers.

The Venice Film Festival has become an important global stage for high-prestige television in recent years. Levi’s Scenes from a Marriage premiered there in 2021. Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope did the same in 2016.

But Etty feels different. It’s not glossy. It’s not meant to be binged. It’s a contemplative watch — better suited for silence than streaming algorithms.

One programming insider said the festival team “felt a moral responsibility” to showcase the series in full. “You can’t just show part of Etty. It’s all or nothing.”

What it means — and why it matters now

We live in noisy times. Streaming platforms are overloaded. Social media dominates attention. Genocide feels, for many, like a word from history books — not headlines.

But Etty is about the inner war. The daily one. The kind you fight in your own soul.

Levi’s choice to focus not on physical violence, but on moral clarity, hits differently in 2025 — especially as global discourse around antisemitism and war intensifies again.

Hillesum’s words, stripped of performance, still speak volumes.

Here’s a brief snapshot of key details:

One line from Hillesum’s diary lingers: “We have to be our own source of light.”

With Etty, Levi may not just be telling her story — he might be rekindling it for a world that desperately needs to remember.