10/30
Story
Through the eyes of a strong-willed woman comes the extraordinary story of Irena Gut and the triumphs 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 this Canadian film had a much wider theatrical release in Canada than the typical Canadian film, for some reason its distributor, Elevation Pictures, decided not to give the film a substantial marketing budget. As a result, the film had poor box office receipts and was pulled from most theaters by the end of its third week of release. (at about 2 minutes) The opening title announces that the events are taking place on the eastern border of Poland. This area of Poland has been invaded by the Soviet Union. However, the area is occupied by German forces. Irena Gut Opdyke: What does it matter who we are? What we do is what we are. BoumMusic by Charles TrenetLyrics by Charles TrenetPerformed by Charlie and His Orchestra. I fully confess that I have done a terrible job of keeping up with movie releases in recent years, as my knowledge has been mostly ad hoc, based on what has appeared on my streaming services. Having heard nothing about this film until I saw it previewed on Showtime a couple of nights ago, I knew pretty much the same as everyone involved. Also, I rarely write IMDB notes, but in this case I was drawn in by the undeservedly mediocre overall rating, skewed by a review that I find ridiculous in every way. So, on to the film itself. As others have noted, the acting and production values may be uneven, but what a story! There’s more than a little Schindler’s List here, but this is even more remarkable, with the lead having anything but the hot seat. Others have summed up the plot well; I won’t do that here, but as impressive as this is as a story, what is even more impressive is the moral complexity and humanity of nearly all the characters, even the Germans, and the director’s keen insight that, while not the primary villains here, the Soviets have nearly as much to answer for as the Nazis for their actions during this period, largely belying the misnomer “Good Fight” (as do so many other things, completely unrelated to this film, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans, our bombing of civilian populations in Germany and Japan, indifference to the plight of European Jews, etc., etc.). I’m often moved by great cinema, but I have to admit to being a little more than a little moved watching the real-life characters’ follow-up stories that roll during the credits (don’t miss them!). For me, this falls somewhere between an 8 and a 9, but gets the benefit of the doubt for the greatness of the story and the need to bump up the overall score here. I note that although this film is not Polish, it is set there, which makes it a duo of two of the best films of recent years that I have ever seen along with “Forgotten Love”. Highly recommended.