Private Project

INSIGHT Hell on Earth

"An eight year old Catholic girl is separated from her family and mistakenly sent to Auschwitz where she is watched by a Jewish Women scheduled for extermination."

1942 Nazi’s invade a Russian harbor town capturing eight year old Klarisa Ananian’s parents. The Family is transported to a Warsaw train station to be shipped to a forced labor camp. At the train station Klarisa is separated from her parents and mistakenly placed on train headed to the Auschwitz. Her Father Ashot fearful of her eventual demise volunteers himself to the Nazis and is forced to remove gold crowns from emaciated corpses. After a few weeks of horrific work he finds Klarisa and is able to miraculously gain his way out of the camp. Separated from his wife and infant son Ashot must reunite his family and lead them through one frightful obstacle after another. Placed into physically grueling, life-or-death experiences in which they are, pitted against seemingly insurmountable odds. Klarisa and her family find the resources within themselves to prevail against the circumstances and ultimately arrive in the Promised Land “America”.

  • Joseph Murkijanian
    Writer
  • Joseph Murkijanian
    Director
  • Joseph Murkijanian
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 2, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Filmmatic Screenplay Awards Finalist
    Los Angeles
    August 1, 2016
    Finalist
Director Biography - Joseph Murkijanian

Joe attended Loyola Marymount University and majored in Film and Television production. He also attended UCLA’s extension program and studied under Christopher Vogler (The Writer’s Journey). He has over twenty-five years of experience in Film and Television production, started out as an Actor and is an accomplished Lighting Designer and DP he is Sony factory trained in HD camera operations and currently works for the Fox Network Center Bldg 101. Joe has also completed five film scripts and has many more in various stages of completion. His filmography can be found on IMDB.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

This story is based on experiences my mother and grand parents went through to survive world war II. Although Auschwitz is a main point in the story I tried not to make this a traditional Holocaust film. My goal was to show their spirit and determination for survival.