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The Worst Film Ever

Overrated and overhyped

Absolutely brilliant

Blistering performances.

This is really a coming of age story about a boy discovering himself. Although it is based on a true story I felt that parts of the film must have been slightly exaggerated. For example there's a part in the film where Stalins son is captured by the Germans unknowingly and it is due to the boys bilingual skills that this is discovered. Following this they all pose for photos together all of which seems highly unlikely. I thought it was mostly well acted although at times a bit over done. The boy was particularly good as it would have been quite a challenging role. The storyline was well thought out and portrayed in way that kept it interesting. I'd recommend it to anyone interested In watching a movie about World War Two from a perspective not often portrayed in film.

This French/German is one that I found in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I remembered the title but not the concept, but I was definitely up for it when I read more detail, from director Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden). Based on a true story, young Jewish boy Salomon 'Solly' 'Salek' Perel (Marco Hofschneider) and his family, Father (Klaus Abramowsky), Mother (Michèle Gleizer) and brothers Isaak (René Hofschneider) and David (Piotr Kozlowski), move to Lodz, Poland following the death of his sister Bertha (Marta Sandrowicz) who was killed in coordinated attack by the Nazis called Kristallnacht, which occurred on the day of his Bar Mitzvah. After Poland is attacked by the Germans, Solly and Isaak are sent away by their father to safety, they are separated, Solly is rescued by Soviet soldiers, sent to an orphanage in Grondo, and he becomes part of the Soviet Communist Union of Youth, and then the Germans attack the orphanage forcing him and the other orphans to flee. He is captured by the Germans, but because of his fluent German language he convinces them he is a German himself named Josef 'Jupp' Peters, being put with the German army he does everything he can not to be detected, only gay German soldier Robert Kellerman (André Wilms) sees his circumcised penis, but he promises not to reveal his secret. In a battle against the Soviets, where Robert and two others were killed, Solly tries to surrender himself, but they surrender and he is praised as a hero by the Germans, who decide to send him to Hitler Youth School, he and Hitler coincidentally share the same birthday, he shares a room with Gerd (Ashley Wanninger) who becomes his best friend. He also meets and falls in love with German girl Leni (Before Sunrise's Julie Delpy), but they cannot have sex as it would expose his true identity, there is a class to test a true German as opposed to a Jew, his measurements match what they would require as he is assumed to be Aryan, there is also medical exam which requires him being naked, so he fakes a toothache to get out of it. Leni and Solly have an argument about Jewish people, he slaps her and she leaves him, after some months he visits Leni's Mother (Halina Labonarska), she tells him that Leni is pregnant with Gerd's baby, he breaks down in devastation and reveals that he is a Jew, the mother promises to keep his secret. His identity comes into question at school when he is called to the police station and asked for his papers and Certificate of Purity, he says they are in Grondo and he feels he is doomed when they say they will as for them to brought, but then a bomb hits, also killing Gerd, the Hitler Youth students are told to fight for and to defend Berlin. In the battle Solly surrenders himself to the Soviet army and tells that he is Jewish, they do not believe him and say if it was true he would be dead or in a concentration camp, but then Isaak, who was rescued from a concentration camp, recognises and identifies him, therefore they are both let go to Palestine, which later becomes Israel. Also starring Solomon Perel as Himself aka Old Solomon Perel, Nathalie Schmidt as Basia - Cinema cashier and Delphine Forest as Inna Moyseyevna. The performance of Hofschneider is absolutely crucial to this film, he is absolutely fantastic as the young forced to hide amongst the Nazis to save his own life, you have to keep in mind that this was a real story, it really is convincing with it's moments of tension, and of course the chilling war sequences full of explosions and gunfire, a most worthwhile Second World War biographical drama. Good!

This international co-production (Germany, France, Poland) unfolds a real story of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy whose most teen and youth years remained under the oppression of both Nazis and Soviets, mostly during World War II (1938-1944). Being a Jew was "non-welcome" in both dictatorships, under Nazi rule, however, it was oppressed and punished directly, thus Solomon had to become Jozef and became an elite "Aryan" German to almost all around him. Thanks to enormous luck, knowledge of languages and desire for survival, he managed to stay alive in different places and rules (by the way, he is still alive, although was born in 1925!).All this is aptly depicted, and despite the tragic background, there are several absurd, hearty and even comic moments in his unwanted journey between Berlin, Lodz and Grodno, reflecting the fast changes of that period (no wonder that the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Academy Award: Best Writing Adapted Screenplay). The cast is even and plausible as well, particularly Marco Hofschneider as Solomon/Jozef who is always visible. Perel appears briefly as himself in the finale.A good and versatile film (there are not too many dealing with events both in the Soviet and Nazi regimes), but the non-original title referring to Europe is confusing, providing a distorted and/or uninviting picture about the real nature of the film.

"Europa Europa" is the sort of film that is filled with so many ridiculous coincidences that it can only be true...which it is! Time and time again, a young Jewish man's life is miraculously saved during the Holocaust and this film is his story.This film begins in Germany just before WWII breaks out. Salomon Perel and his family are Jews and they leave Germany for safety in Poland. Unfortunately, soon the German army invades and takes Poland...and Salomon and his brother run off to avoid the pograms. Here is where the story starts to get interesting. The brothers get separated and Salomon escapes to the Soviet portion of Poland where he is taken into a communist re-education school. He learns to be the ideal communist. But, the Germans are once again on the move and invade--taking the school and its students. Thinking twice, Salomon concocts a crazy story when he's caught--telling them he's a German orphan and he was forced to go to the school. And, because he doesn't appear Jewish and can understand Russian, the Germans keep him as a sort of mascot in their army. Soon, the soldiers adore him! Later, when he tries to defect back to the Russian lines, through a funny coincidence, it appears he's captured a group of Russian soldiers--and he's an even BIGGER hero to Germany! This is only through about half of the film--the coincidences and difficult to believe situations increase tremendously! Overall, this is an excellent production and a truly unique film. There have been so many Holocaust films that it's nice to see one that is so different. It's interesting from start to finish and I strongly recommend it.By the way, it's a minor problem but the plane Salomon sees up in the sky late in the film is a VERY modern one--made decades after WWII.