14/35
Through the eyes of a strong-willed woman comes the remarkable story of Irena Gut and the triumph of the human spirit over devastating tragedy as she risks her life to save a generation of Jews from the atrocities of the Holocaust. Although the film was released in Canadian theaters much more widely than the typical Canadian film, for some reason its distributor, Elevation Pictures, decided not to give the film a significant marketing budget. As a result, the film performed poorly at the box office and was pulled from most theaters by the end of its third week or premiere. (about 2 minutes) The opening title card states that the events take place on the eastern border of Poland. This area of Poland has been invaded by the Soviet Union. Yet the area is occupied by German forces… Irena Gut Opdijk: What does it matter who we are? What we do is who we are. BoumMusic by Charles Trenet Lyrics by Charles Trenet Played by Charlie and his orchestra. I fully admit that I haven’t kept up with current movie releases for the past few years, as my knowledge is mostly ad hoc based on what’s showing up on my streaming services. I had never heard of this movie until I saw it on Showtime a few days ago, and I knew pretty much the same about every single one of the parties involved. I also rarely write notes on IMDB, but in this case I’m drawn to it given the undeservedly average overall rating skewed by a review that I find absurd in every way. Now, on to the movie itself. As others have noted, the acting and production values may be different, but what a story! There’s more to Schindler’s List than meets the eye, but it’s even more exceptional, as the main character is anything but privileged. Others have summed up the plot well; I won’t go into it here, but as impressive as the yarn is, even more so is the moral complexity and humanity of almost all the characters, even the Germans, and the director’s jungle-eyed vision that, while they aren’t the main bad guys here, the Soviets bear almost as much responsibility for their actions during this period as the Nazis, with many false “Good Fight” misnomers (as do many other things that are completely unrelated to this film, such as the Japanese-American internment, our bombing of civilians in Germany and Japan, our indifference to the fate of European Jews, etc., etc.). I’m often moved by great cinema, but I have to admit that during the closing credits (don’t miss this one!) I get a little more teary-eyed watching the real characters’ stories. For me, it’s somewhere between an 8 and a 9, but it has the benefit of doubting the greatness of the story and the need to boost the overall score. I note that although this film is not Polish, it is set there and forms a pair of the two best films of recent years that I have seen, along with “Forgotten Love.” Highly recommended.