Boris Maftsir is a documentary filmmaker who, in his work, frequently explores the Holocaust as it took place in former Soviet Union countries. Maftsir was born in Riga and in his twenties, he was arrested for engaging in Zionist activities. Following his release from prison, he moved to Israel and enroled in the inaugural class of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Film and Television Studies.
Maftsir has held a wide range of top administrative positions in the public sector. Amongst other things, he has served as the CEO of the Israeli Film Service, Head of the Culture and Arts Department in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Director General of the Department of Immigrant Integration [formerly Ministry of Immigrant Absorption], and Head of Delegation of the Jewish Agency in Russia.
In 2014 he embarked on his documentary project, Searching for the Unknown Holocaust, which explores the WWII genocide of Soviet Jews. Highlights of his directorial credits include The Guardians of Remembrance (2014), Holocaust. The Eastern Front (2016), We Allow you to Die (2016), Beyond the Nistru (2016), Drawers of Memory (2017), Gotenland (2018), The Mystery of the Black Book (2019), and The Road to Babi Yar (2019).
