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A Jewish orphan escapes the Warsaw ghetto only to find hardships wherever he runs. This is a beautifully shot movie lovingly presenting Poland. The story of this boy, his trials, the friends he finds, the friends he loses, is a wild tale with endearing characters every so often. It reminds me of just how absurd a world the Nazis built.

Lauf Junge lauf (2013) is a German/Polish film shown in the US with the title "Run Boy Run." It was directed by Pepe Danquart. The movie tells the harrowing story of Srulik, a Jewish boy who escapes the Warsaw ghetto and survives--by using his wits and his courage--in rural Poland.

Kamil Tkacz brilliantly plays Srulik. (Srulik changes his name to Jurek Staniak in order to pass as a Gentile.) There really was a Srulik, so this film is partially a documentary. It's not an easy film to watch, because Srulik's life is horribly difficult, and every respite is followed by yet another near-death experience.

The Poles Srulik meets range from evil (turning him over to the Germans for a reward) to neutral, to wonderful. In fact, the actions of the Polish people Surlik encounters make up the bulk of the story. However, ever present, even off-screen, is the huge evil of the Holocaust.

It's hard to believe that the occupying Germans would spend so much time and energy trying to catch one young Jewish boy, but that was the reality. Srulik was never safe. He was safer or less safe, but never truly safe.

I think this extraordinary film is worth seeking out and watching. It will work well on DVD, but we were fortunate enough to see it at the excellent Dryden Theatre, as part of the superb Rochester Jewish Film Festival.

P.S. As I write this review, Run Boy Run carries a dismal 6.5 IMDb rating. I think that's because the film has so many bad moments, and so few truly happy ones. Still, it's an excellent movie, and, in my opinion, deserves a much higher rating.

This film is available on Netflix, it does have subtitles, but that makes this story that much better. The young actors who play Srulik/Jurek did an absolutely amazing job and perfectly captured the raw emotion, pain and suffering that Yoram Friedman must have felt during the 3 years spent fleeing Germans in the Polish countryside. If not mentioned above, this film is based on a true story and is said to be 90% accurate, the end of the film features a clip from Yoram himself. I highly recommend this film as it portrays war and the suffering of Jews during WWII from a child's perspective. I was left in tears and just wanting to hug Srulik at the end, this film will definitely stay with me for a very long time.

Srulik is eight years old when in 1942 the German war machine tightens its grip on the Warsaw Ghetto. His father knows that to stay means death and so tries to get his family out. In the fog of war Srulik ends up alone and flees to the forests of Poland.

He soon finds that being the boy he was born to be will not help him survive and so takes on a mantle that will help him. To sat any more runs the risk of ruining the story. This is based on a true story and to think that someone could have come through such tortures is both saddening and encouraging.

It had me moved to tears on more than one occasion and to say the acting is superb is an understatement. This is not a war film as such, but is based in one and the terrible things that such brings. It is in Polish and German with good sub titles and is a film I shall be recommending for some time to come.

I starting watching this film on Netflix and was about to turn it off when I saw the sub-titles. I really don't like to have to read them. I prefer movies I watch to be in English but I just couldn't turn it off. I was immediately drawn in and didn't mind the sub-titles at all. There wasn't not a lot of dialog anyway. This film is so beautifully done, the story, the music and the time period in history. It is a heartbreaking series of events. The young boy's acting is superb and you feel as if you are right there with him as he struggles to survive in the cruel world of the Holocaust. It is far from happy but definitely worth watching. I recommend this movie. It will stay with me for a long time.