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Truth is stranger than fiction in Agnieszka Holland’s Golden Globe-winning masterwork about a young Jewish man who survives World War II as a member of the Hitler Youth.
Germany 1938. Solomon ‘Solly’ Perel is preparing for his bar mitzvah as the Nazi persecution of Jews begins. His family moves to Poland; when war breaks out they are trapped between the Nazi invasion and the encroaching Russian forces. Separated from his family, Solly becomes Josef Peters, an Aryan German, who struggles in the face of increasing horrors to hide who he really is.
Based on the 1989 memoir by Solomon Perel, Holland’s film is a powerful evocation of the moral complexities and absurdities of war. Filming mostly in Poland as Communism was crumbling, Holland returned home for the first time in eight years to make arguably her greatest film, presented here in a meticulous 2K restoration.
“Accomplishes what every film about the Holocaust seeks to achieve: It brings new immediacy to the outrage by locating specific, wrenching details that transcend cliché.” – New York Times
