scurvytoon

Delightful surprise for a film made on such a low budget. Well acted and scripted, this action entry into the WW 2 genre not made by Hollywood, is gripping and maintains the same high standards of the films that came out in the 1960's and 70's. I'm impressed at the overall casting and especially that of an actor who can speak French like somebody who had grown up around Metz. At it's core the film is about the bonding experience between English troops and the American officer chosen to lead the dangerous mission behind enemy lines.

Based on actual incidents, Allies works best when doing intimate close combat scenes and those wonderfully believable moments when the characters draw closer and closer as the danger increases. Apart from the set representing HQ back in the UK and the choice of video over film stock, the net effect is much like any mainstream non indie war film done on a bigger budget.

Once the action gets going you forget it's not on film stock and just enjoy the perilous roller coaster ride that I thought had been strictly the reserve of Central and Eastern European film makers who's work seldom is seen outside of art houses or past the Polish border. Some surprising performances from a cast that include a former footballer and a boy band member. Nice to see the art form is not dead in Britain.

Be warned, it's a war film meant to convey the finality and brutality of combat, if you're a bit squeamish you might want to look away once or twice but nothing extreme or exaggerated.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Northmen. At first I was a bit conflicted, how could I cheer for bloodthirsty Vikings come to pillage Lindisfarne? Well it's easy once the writers conveniently turn the Scots King and his mercenaries into the bad guys, from there on in it's easy. If you've watched a few Viking films in your life you'll next be thinking thank G-d it's not Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas et al camping up the screen. The prospect of a bunch of hams from the Pale via Hollywood overacting looms menacingly, and frankly for a fair few minutes you wonder if this is merely a modern update of the same old swill and will it stop short of the silly hats and comedy of Xena. But no, it redeems itself almost from the moment the wolf pack who resemble orcs from LOTR in both appearance and demeanour leave to rescue the kidnapped princess IF they can, if they must.

Our plucky heroes are joined by a kung fu staff fighting Christian monk, our princess turns out to have the gift and the race is on to see how many of the cast will survive to the end credits. We are taken across a picturesque albeit mostly barren landscape filled with danger and traps for both sides. The chase is artfully interrupted every so often by every trope ever from a buddy action film, which given the subject matter, is not a bad thing. While not Ibsen or Shakespeare, the script manages to paint the Vikings with a delicate balance between posturing warriors and a misunderstood people capable of honour and compassion. At one point our hero informs the Princess that not all Vikings are nearly as bad as made out to be, a master stroke in facial expression and delivery that in the hands of a lesser actor would have brought us shuddering right back to Ernest Borgnine eloquence. Though if only for a laugh, it would have been nice to have one of them let go a long loud anguished RAGNAR!

The action is well staged and the pacing wonderful, far from the super gore of The 300, this manly exercise is the answer to the question what if they made Lord of the Rings without wizards, orcs or demon wraith Kings. Shot in the same style and feel as LOTR, costumed and cast with believable Vikings and Scots, The Northmen is one of those fun cool films you'll enjoy over and over again. With just a hint of 1950's flavour, this German production sets us up at the end for a sequel in the Danelaw. Stick around for the end credits to hear Viking Metal songs by Amon Amarth which are the perfect way to cap off this film. Terrific little action flic for boys of every age, don't pass this one by. I sincerely hope they make that sequel.

"We must never forget" normally refers to the notion that we as people as a race, as thinking animals capable of more base and self centred actions must never forget the horrors of the Holocaust so as not to repeat it. In this case however I mean to say that there are some who would tar the Polish people with one negative image that has managed to survive in some communities that Poles not only did not help but were complicit in the Nazi's treatment of Jews. To say as some have, that stories such as this are overdone, and should be given a rest is to devalue and spit on the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of brave people across Poland; doctors, factory managers, priests, nuns, sewer workers, farmers, labourers who without these stories would be forgotten long before the stain that is the final solution is ever wiped from our collective memories. Too many died to be so sullied and too many survived to be silenced.

Hidden in Silence tells the true story of a 15 year old Catholic maid left to care for her sister once her parents are taken to work in Germany. Needing a place to live when forced to leave the Przemyśl ghetto, she finds a new home where for two and a half she hides and protects her former employers and other Jews. The fact they all survived the ordeal to live full lives well into old age is a sort of victory for all the others who had done the same but failed in the end.

As for the film itself, the more harrowing elements of what Fusia and the Diamants had to go through are alluded to well enough for a TV movie, but are not explored as deeply as a more explicit gritty feature film would. Despite the limitations placed on the story by the format, we do get to see the more emotional and psychological pressures of both being locked away for two years and being the one who has to walk away from and feed daily said people for such a long time. It's hard for modern people brought up in the diaspora and even harder for those who have no connection to these times and events to imagine just how hard this was and how it makes even the smallest child a heroine by the simple act of being quiet or as in the case of one little girl, to go into the the Ghetto to find and save people knowing that if caught, she will be killed.

As a pole I am aware we may have an accent when speaking English, even those of us born far from there into Polish families in North America, but it took me a while to get past some of the more forced attempts to make dialogue aimed at a domestic American audience sound Polish. Having said that, it doesn't take long to buy Kellie Martin as Fusia. She embraces the role well enough to sometimes even achieve the shadow of paranoia and fear that come more easily to seasoned actresses and to be frank, people with a deeper understanding of the source material. The rest of the cast from the youngest to the oldest lifted a script limited by being for television, past the words spoken and unspoken to deliver portrayals any one of us who's families Catholic or Jewish who come from that part of the world would recognise as not only accurate but dignified. There is a moment in the film when two girls discuss pickles and other food so vividly and honestly you taste the garlic and smell the brine. The locations, sets and costumes are wonderful further making Hidden in Silence one of the better time capsules you'll watch.

There will always be grittier darker and more depressing tellings of this story, most of which don't end nearly as happily as this one does, but not everybody is cut out for Shindler's list or the Polish/Yiddish/Russian language film In Darkness from 2011. If you have a chance to see this, regardless of age or background, do so. The profiles in courage and righteousness shown here need to be seen in a jaded self centred world where real suffering in some places only occurs in history books. In a time when even the youngest survivors of events such as this are fewer in number and the children and grandchildren are themselves no longer that young, it is important that we never forget or as I was recently told by a survivor... We must remember.

I leave you with the words of Fusia Podgorska who's actions judged by herself and weighed against the actions of those around her said "I did nothing special".