The Birdcatcher

A young Jewish girl, against seemingly insurmountable odds, survives the war disguised as a boy. The film portrays her as a young woman of immense courage and determination - and it is brought home to the viewer precisely what someone in her position might have had to endure. A beautiful, sad and thought-provoking film..worth far higher a score than it received.

No, Esther did not really look like a boy, and a few other details were not totally realistic, but so what? Overall I found The Birdcatcher effective and I was engrossed from beginning to end. Often when watching films it's necessary to suspend disbelief and some films require it more than others. During the Holocaust, Jews did anything they could to not be captured by the Nazis. They were hunted prey. Some of the survival stories are hard to believe yet they happened. Imagine living in a sewer for a couple of years. Or a forest, or a crawl space.

The cinematography was excellent with gorgeous shots of Norway in winter. The plot which is based on a true story is, as I said, engrossing. There is some fine acting too. It's definitely worth watching unless you're into movies like Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy.

I am fussy about detail....When the girl jumps off the truck in the middle of winter and falls into a river...she gets to shore and throws her wet coat away and walks away in the cold soaking wet and not even a chill...Dry hair blowing in the wind..

Norway isn't an area that our home knows a great deal about, so it was surprising that some of their folk during WW2 actually supported Nazi Germany. I would suggest it unlikely that 1 young female would go through so much on her own. However, this pulls no punches as to how difficult is was for any jewish person living in Norwegian society during the war. In this case, we have a young girl hiding out in on a farm, the lead actress doing a very good job with her part. The ending is, perhaps, a surprise and possibly unlikely. Perhaps you will take a serious look at this movie which tells one story of a young womans struggle without any involvement of "Hollywood", it has a "no holds barred" approach to some of the realities of war. Nazi Germany had much to answer for.

This Anglo-Norwegian production tells the story of Esther (SarahSofie Boussnina), a 14-year-old Jewish orphan in Germanoccupied Norway during WW2. Disguising herself as a Gentile boy, she seeks refuge with a collaborationist family. Serious suspension of disbelief is required to accept the heroine's masquerade, while emotional resonance is diluted by a streak of melodrama.