274. Interview | THIS ORDINARY THING Director Nick Davis

Nick Davis is the director of THIS ORDINARY THING, a documentary about the non-Jews who helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. It's a collection of fascinating testimonies read by top-caliber actors (including Helen Mirren, Carrie Coon, Lily Tomlin, John Leguizamo, F. Murray Abraham, Lily Rabe) that present a time and place not so dissimilar to our own. These are ordinary people faced with the threat of genocide, the death of their friends and neighbors. Other people who they may consider friends spread hateful rhetoric. The way some people talked about the Jews in this documentary don't seem too far from the ways others will rationalize the Gazan genocide.This modernity is something Davis listed as a goal in this interview, not only as a way to keep this relevant to 2026, but also as the best way to keep these people and their stories alive. It's the ultimate goal of all history, I think, to persist when our bodies cannot.I asked Davis about the stories he couldn't shake, the process of getting Helen Mirren to say yes to the project (something he retells with an air of bewilderment, even as this movie's in the can and available to the public), and the ways which he crafted the story to breathe life back into 1940s Europe.---THIS ORDINARY THING is now available to stream on Prime or rent on Apple TV.Follow The Movies on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Throw a couple dollars in the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tip jar!