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.
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Sounds interesting..hadn't heard of this film..my hearing must be getting worse..
ReplyDelete