BBC2's main showcase for new films returns with a controversial drama that caused a stir at its first screening at last year's London Film Festival. Genghis Cohn, adapted by Stanley Price from a novel by Romain Gary, tackles Germany's post-war rebuilding and post-holocaust guilt with the comic tale of an ex-SS officer who finds himself possessed by the ghost of a Jewish comedian whose execution he ordered.

"Many people who saw the film said they couldn't enjoy comedy that focuses on a man who shot men, women and children," says Robert Lindsay, who plays the possessed Schatz. "I lost a lot of confidence about It until a woman stood up at the end of the London Film Festival screening and announced that she was a holocaust survivor. She said everyone ought to see Genghis Cohn because it's about forgiveness. I found that extraordinary."

See This Week page 4