Dir. Edward Zwick, US, 2008, 137 mins, English/some Russian with subtitles
Cast: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell
Review by Carol Allen
This film tells the story of a community of 1,200 Belarusian Jews, who survived the Holocaust, defying their persecutors by hiding in the forest for three years. It's a good story, based on historical fact, which deserves to be told.
The community is led by three brothers, Tuvia (Craig), Zus (Schreiber) and the youngest Asael (Bell). One of the main points of the story is that it presents a different image of the Jewish race from that of passive victims. The three brothers in real life were known as "scrappy fighters" but good though these actors are, it's a bit difficult to accept them initially as East European Jews. Compared to their fellows in the forest, who comply more closely with the exotically different culture of the time and place, they seem very Western figures, even Schreiber, who is himself Jewish. It might have been more convincing if they'd been more like the others initially and then emerged as the feisty guerrilla figures, who bring to the fore this other side of the Jews as fighters and defiant survivors. The direction in this respect is at times somewhat heavy handed. I also question the wisdom of giving the characters foreign accents. The film's made in English for obvious box office reasons to reach a wide audience, so one assumes that we are to believe that in real life they were speaking their own language. No need for foreign accents then. Scenes where they are dealing with the Russian partisans and speaking Russian carry more conviction.
However, with these reservations it is a well acted and an engrossing story. The difference in the way Tuvia and Zus choose to fight back, with Tuvia as a bit of a Moses figure, the community leader and defender of his people and Zus as an aggressive warrior, who leaves the community to join the Red Army partisans in fighting the Nazi invader, makes for an interesting dramatic conflict between the brothers. Alex Davalos makes an impression as Lilka, the merchant's daughter, who crosses the now obsolete class barrier and falls in love with the villager Tuvia, as does Iben Hjelje as Bella, who solicits the protection of Zus. There's also an effectively sweet relationship between Asael and Mia Wasikowska as the young girl who becomes his wife. The concept of those members of the community, whose families have been murdered, taking new “forest” spouses is an interesting one. Other characters, such as Jodhi May as a pregnant victim of rape and the brothers' former schoolteacher Shimon (Alan Corduner), a bookish and deeply religious man, struggling to adjust to the forest life for which he is totally unfitted, bring out the harsh reality of the situation with considerable poignancy.
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