Described as a tragicomedy this is a film about life in Poland's Jewish ghetto's during Hitler's occupation. It is also a film about creating something from nothing. It is about survival in the face of the harshest odds.
Robin Williams as Jakob in the lead is supported by other interesting characters like Liev Schriber, Alan Arkin et al. What begins as an accident in Jakob wandering out after dark and getting confronted by the Gestapo turns out to be the trigger for the plot. He is summoned to the HQ for a false reason of being out after curfew hours and while in the HQ he hears the German radio broadcast of the Soviet Armies approaching close to the border. He is sent back to camp but gets locked out and has to sneak back through the rail yard in order to avoid being shot. Here he stumbles into a 10 year old girl that has been made to jump the train by her family who is going to the gas chamber.
Together they now squat in a bombed out building. Jakob has to now fend for himself and this little girl. He is wishing against all odds that the nightmare he is in will end and wills himself to play cool against the daily police brutalities. In one scene he mentions to another camp mate that he heard the Russians were coming closer and would free them all. This village idiot misunderstands the fact that Jakob has heard of Russian armies on a radio he secretly obtained.
The word spreads in the camp about this mystery Radio and Jakob is at his wits end with this new problem. If discovered he would be shot for a non existent Radio, which is banned in the ghetto. He uses this vague idea in collaboration with the local doctor to their advantage by spreading tales of hope that they are all about to be rescued by the advancing Soviets. This reduces the suicide rate in the ghetto and also gives people something to look forward to rather than their humdrum existence.
It is an amazing parallel to today's politicians who in some cases have to be above all hope builders. From the EU leaders to Obama to perhaps those that lead third world's its largely a hope drama.
Obama has done a good job of that in the last four years and now in the next four is expected to actually show that the allied forces (or in this case real economic growth) are here to stay. Or else he gets shot - oh well he only gets eight years anyway so it will be up to the next guy or gal to find a new Radio.
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
Sounds interesting..hadn't heard of this film..my hearing must be getting worse..
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