Spielzeugland

The type of this short film is drama and war. The film was made in 2007.

Heinrich, who is a young boy, plays the piano with his neighbor David.

However, David is a Jewish boy, and one day his family is taken to a camp. Because Heinrich's mother tells him that David's family will go to a toy land, Heinrich wants to go there with them. On the day when David' s family is taken to the camp, Heinrich tries to follow them, getting out his home without his mother realizing it. This is why she is so surprised to see no one in Heinrich's bed, and she starts to look for her son. While looking for him, there are moving dramas.

I really like this film. At first, actually I had difficulty understanding the storyline, but after watching the movie twice I could figure it out. The most impressive point of this film is that Heinrich's mother is incredibly brave and smart. In order to find her son, she looks around a variety of places. Even after she realizes that her son is safe, she never gives up to do something meaningful. As I mentioned above, this film is a little bit hard to understand, but it is definitely worth watching.

Potently seen through the eyes of two young boys, the rise of Nazi-ism is depicted as "David" (Tamay Bulut Ozvatan), a Jew, and his family must make preparations for a trip whilst the mother of the other (Julia Jäger) must make preparations to lie to her son about just what is going on in their country now. They boys have no appreciation of the dangers and so armed with his bear "Little Paul" the two insist on travelling together. Can his mother track down "Heinrich" (Cedric Eich) before it's too late? It's chilling, this film - not just the effects of the snow on the ground but these ghastly yellow stars stitched like targets upon the clothing of the unwilling travellers. The boys think they are going to "Toyland".... Scary stuff well presented with an effective minimum of dialogue.

"Toyland" is a film that works so brilliantly that it managed to be powerful, thought-provoking and even gut-wrenching than most Hollywood films that are 8 to 10 times longer. With sparse dialogue, director Jochen Alexander Freydank keeps us hooked throughout this superb short film.

Set during the Holocaust, a German woman frantically searches for her son, who might have decided to accompany his Jewish neighbors to a Nazi concentration camp because the Jewish family's young son and her son are best friends.

The film is elegantly shot and wonderfully acted. There is more poignancy and true emotion in this film than I have seen in most Hollywood films in recent times.

Director Freydank moves his story along, with us always wondering not only what comes next but how this is going to end. And then comes the denouement: A truly remarkable twist that says much about the human spirit. It is a moment that will break your heart while simultaneously make you smile.

If you have the chance to see this, and the other Oscar-nominated live action shorts, do yourself a favor and watch them. Believe me, it will be time much better spent than, say, on "New In Town" or most any other mainstream Hollywood film.

I just saw Spielzeugland and recognized the whole plot almost from the beginning. I am positive I've seen it before, or read it. Does anyone else remember it? There was a Q&A with the writer and he didn't mention getting the plot from somewhere else. Anyone out there know this story from a maybe book or a t.v. show? That said, I did find it very moving and upsetting. The actress who played the mother did a fine job, as did the piano teacher. People may say holocaust-themed movies are overdone, but I don't think so; that era needs to be kept alive in peoples' minds so that it doesn't fade into oblivion as the final survivors die out. It's hard to believe the entire film is only l4 minutes long.

The moment I heard melancholy piano instrumental played on the background, I felt to be pulled by a film. From a German language actress speaks and her serious reaction to the missing son, I soon noticed it is a story about The Holocaust. At first, it is slightly difficult to follow the story, because it is told from two perspectives of German mother and David, her son, in two timelines. The first scene starts with David's mother going to find David, who is seemingly captured by SS. In the next scene of David and Heinrich playing the piano together, we finally understand why David is missing. One of the most impressive moments is the interaction between the mother and David. The mother cannot honestly tell David the cruel truth about entrainment of Jewish, and instead lies that they will go to "Toyland." Watching unsatisfied David and the conversation between David and Heinrich, Jewish friend of David, we come to see why David vanishes from his bed. On the latter part, I was really thrilled by the struggle to reach David by his mother. In every sequence such as finding the teddy bear, being suspected as Jewish by the police, and final arrival to the train where David is, the contents are considerably concentrated, and I couldn't avert my eyes.