Europa Europa
"A riveting and moving film!" -Leonard Maltin
This "incredible, true story" (Los Angeles Times) is at once "eye-opening, harrowing and humorous" (Leonard Maltin) as it recounts the severe actions a young Jewish boy must take in order to survive the Holocaust. Based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel, a young German Jew the film "bounds from one jaw-dropping episode to the next" (The New Yorker) and puts you in the middle of war-torn Europe where ingenuity, timing and luck are the key to survival.
Separated from his family at the age of thirteen, Solly (Marco Hofschneider) takes on various identities to hide his Jewish heritage. First passing himself off as an orphan and later as one of the "Hitler Youth," Solly carries on his charade, hoping desperately to keep his identity hidden...and make it thought the war alive.
Member Reviews
You couldn't make up this story - feliper
This is the kind of story that if it weren't true, you couldn't make up it's that incredible. Solly, a Jewish teenager, escapes from the Nazis, only to end up in a Russian orphanage, only to end up back with the Nazis as a hero of the Aryan race. The story is gripping beyond words, but I found that Marco Hofschneider didn't always convince of the underlying terror that must have been part and parcel of Solomon Perel's day-to-day existence.unique coming of age story - vadim
This is a very powerful film that is exclusively a coming of age story in a terribel time to be growing up. The main charcter switches identities and sides throughout the film in order to stay alive. The second world war is used almost as a backdrop for the main chracter to learn about life and human values.Europa Europa - ricepudding
In this writer’s opinion this is a first class production. It is a movie which
presents a story from WW2, but it is not a war film like, eg. ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘A Bridge Too Far’
It is an intensely personal film, acted with vigor and power. The effects are good. In Europa Europa, unlike the above productions, you become involved in a story which borders the miraculous, here you will feel that you are part of history.
The movie:
We follow a small but intensely dangerous part of the life of a Jewish man Solomon Perel. Born a German, he and his relatives were Jews in Hitler’s Germany when to be a Jew was almost a passport to death.
At 16, Solomon Perel was an energetic fine looking
youth. In part, his looks and compact body sometimes saves him from disaster. Watch closely to see this.
(Women find him very attractive, and we are lead to believe that his
virginity disappears to an older, forceful woman in a train compartment. It is a funny interlude.)
Solomon witnesses the beginning onslaught of the Brown Shirts. Things get desperate so he heads East. He ends up in a Russian orphanage, where his Jewishness is tolerated. The most important aspect of his stay at the institution is that he learns too speak Russian. Later, this will save his life.
He finds himself captured into the German Army, and the successful attempts to conceal his Jewish situation should have you magnetized to the screen. Because he speaks Russian, the Germans find him useful. He becomes a mascot, also the friend of an actor who finds out that he is a Jew, but will never reveal. They form a friendship as only war can do in a special way.....his friend is shot in battle, and Solomon weeps, “I lost the other kind of German” he says.
(re. younger folk, There are a few distressing scenes.
Member Reviews
Read All...
You couldn't make up this story - feliper
This is the kind of story that if it weren't true, you couldn't make up it's that incredible. Solly, a Jewish teenager, escapes from the Nazis, only to end up in a Russian orphanage, only to end up back with the Nazis as a hero of the Aryan race. The story ...unique coming of age story - vadim
This is a very powerful film that is exclusively a coming of age story in a terribel time to be growing up. The main charcter switches identities and sides throughout the film in order to stay alive. The second world war is used almost as a backdrop for the ...Europa Europa - ricepudding
In this writer’s opinion this is a first class production. It is a movie which
presents a story from WW2, but it is not a war film like, eg. ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘A Bridge Too Far’
It is an intensely personal film, acted with vigor and power. The ...