Directed by:
Agnieszka HollandScreenplay:
Paul HenggeCinematography:
Jacek PetryckiComposer:
Zbigniew PreisnerCast:
Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, René Hofschneider, André Wilms, Andrzej Mastalerz, Hanns Zischler, Norbert Schwarz, Halina Labonarska, Artur Barciś (more)VOD (2)
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As World War II splits Europe, sixteen-year-old German Jew Salomon (Marco Hofschneider) is separated from his family after fleeing with them to Poland, and finds himself reluctantly assuming various ideological identities in order to hide the deadly secret of his Jewishness. He is bounced from a Soviet orphanage, where he plays a dutiful Stalinist, to the Russian front, where he hides in plain sight as an interpreter for the German army, and back to his home country, where he takes on his most dangerous role: a member of the Hitler Youth. Based on the real-life experiences of Salomon Perel, Agnieszka Holland’s wartime tour de force Europa Europa is a breathless survival story told with the verve of a comic adventure, an ironic refutation of the Nazi idea of racial purity, and a complex portrait of a young man caught up in shifting historical calamities and struggling to stay alive. (Criterion)
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A film about how it is possible to survive in a time that is not in your favor. A boy, pretending to be Jewish, tries to survive as best as he can. So, he plays different roles, which are ultimately most affected by the fact that he only has a glans instead of the foreskin. It is harsh how sometimes it can fail due to such a small detail. But it doesn't have to.
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In one of the comments, the protagonist of the film, Sally, is compared to Forrest Gump, who makes short-sighted decisions and gets everything wrong. Personally, I believe that if he made bad decisions, his life would take much darker paths and would end soon. I remember the series of documentary films Forgotten Transports to..., which portrayed the fates of a handful of surviving Jews from concentration camps. Practically each of them lived a story that was worth filming and is hardly believable - if it weren't true. Movies simply aren't made about the millions who were unlucky and couldn't decide in a fraction of a second which line to join or when to raise their hand. Sally showed a great deal of presence of mind and courage, but he also had to have immense luck. I remember the story of a German Jewish immigrant from Paris, where the victorious German army entered. The first selections began, and that young man, under the motto "under the candelabrum it is darkest," boldly signed up for the SS units at the recruitment office. Unlike millions of other members of his church, he survived the war when he spent a few years in elite SS units in Norway. I have experience with Agnieszka Holland's works in that her direction will never take me to any heavenly heights, but on the other hand, she films reliably and, moreover, her greatest advantage is that she has a sense for selecting attractive material. Of course, even though the film is based on the real hero's experiences, the screenwriter could have embellished his experiences a bit to make the film's narrative more attractive. Even so, it is an exceptionally interesting work that speaks a lot about the crazy times and anti-Semitism in (not only) German society. Overall impression: 75%.
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