Ghetto

I saw this film when I spent some time in Vilnius. Not long before I head spent some time in the genocide museum in the Lithuanian capital and I was fascinated by there history, especially during WWII. Since this movie was spoken in English, and everyone was talking about it I went to see it in one of the big theaters.

It added to the experience to be in the city where the story took place, but regardless, it was very well done, it just seemed to be unsure whether it was a musical, play or war movie. That made it very original but also confusing at times. I see it as a lighthearted approach of something good during very bad times. Meaning that the tone of the movie switched often and took the audience of guard, which is a great thing, but it should have been done more subtle.

I must add that the acting was superb, and my hat's off to Hülk, great performance!

This is an emotionally tale and very decent drama about the terrifying existence in Vilna ghetto including suffering , grisly executions , theatrical happenings , starvation and other grisly events until a terrible ending . Based on Joseph Sobol's play ¨Ghetto¨ recounts the last days of the Vilna Ghetto Theatre company . German troops entered Vilnius on 26 June 1941, followed by units of the Einsatzgruppe or death squads . Germans rule over Vilna and close Jews at a ghetto . It is commanded by the twenty-two year old nasty officer Kittel (Sebastian Hulk) in charge of the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania . When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah (Erika Marozsan) taking some beans from the German army, he condemns her to death; but when he is informed that she was a previous successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote spectacles . The Jew Chief of Police named Gens (Heino Ferch) uses the theater to save people and makes a sewing factory . Unlike in other ghettos, the resistance movement in the Vilna Ghetto was not run by ghetto officials . Jacob Gens, appointed head of the ghetto by the Nazis but originally chief of police, ostensibly cooperated with German officials in stopping armed struggle.

This is a portentous drama about Jews suffering in the Lithuanian holocaust . Very good performances from main cast as Heino Ferch as Jew chief police who save as much lives as he can and Sebastian Hulk as sadistic Nazi who kills relentlessly and a gorgeous Erika Marozsan as Jew singer suffering the anger from villain commandant. Filmmaker Audrius Juzenas correctly directs a spellbinding portrait about the holocaust based on true facts .

Adding more details over largely described on the movie referred 'the Vilna ghetto ', the events happened on the following manner : Vilna Ghetto was called "Yerushalayim of the Ghettos" because it was known for its intellectual and cultural spirit. Before the war, Vilnius had been known as "Yerushalayim d'Lita¨ (Yiddish: Jerusalem of Lithuania) for the same reason. The center of cultural life in the ghetto was the Mefitze Haskole Library which was called the "House of Culture". It contained a library holding 45,000 volumes . Jewish groups organized events commemorating Yiddish and Hebrew authors and put on plays in these languages . The Vilna Ghetto was well-known for its theatrical productions during World War II. Jacob Gens (Heino Ferch), the head of Jewish police and the ruler of the Vilna ghetto, was given the responsibility for the starting of this theatre.Performances included poetry by Jewish Authors, dramatizations of short stories, and new work by the young ghetto people. The Ghetto Theatre was a great source of revenue and had a calming effect on the public. A total of 111 performances had been given by January 10th, 1943 and a total of 34,804 tickets were sold. The theatre was renovated to accommodate a bigger audience and create a better-looking theatre for the public eye. This theatre permitted the non-Aryan race to display their power through plays and songs .The last theatrical production, The Flood, was produced by the Swedish dramatist Henning Berger and opened in the summer of 1943, in the last week of this Ghetto's existence. This play, set in an American saloon during a flood, featured a group of people who banded together during a time of danger and need. In early 1943, the Germans caught a member of the Communist underground who revealed some contacts under torture and the Judenrat, in response to German threats, tried to turn Yitzhak Wittenberg, the head of the FPO, over to the Gestapo. The FPO The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (United Partisan Organization) was able to rescue him after he was seized in the apartment of Jacob Gens in a fight with Jewish ghetto police. Gens brought in heavies, the leaders of the work brigades, and effectively turned the majority of the population against the resistance members, claiming they were provoking the Nazis and asking rhetorically whether it was worth sacrificing tens of thousands for the sake of one man. Ghetto prisoners assembled and demanded the FPO give Wittenberg up. Ultimately Wittenberg himself made the decision to submit to the Nazi demands. He was taken to Gestapo headquarters in Vilnius and was reportedly found dead in his cell the next morning. Most people believed he had committed suicide. The rumour had it that Gens had slipped him a cyanide pill in their final meeting.During roughly two years of its existence, starvation, disease, street executions, maltreatment and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps reduced the population of the ghetto from an estimated 40,000 to zero. Only several hundred people managed to survive, mostly by hiding in the forests surrounding the town, joining the Soviet partisans, or finding shelter among sympathetic locals.

First of all, I had to say if you don't finish it you would never feel its goodness. Pianist described the Warsaw Ghetto from a pure view of a Jew. Schudler's list described from a view of a German with Humanity. Both are not enough. This movie shows a German (Nazi) Officer's mental struggling between evil and an artist. Between ghost and human. The same time, a Jew police of Ghetto also struggles mentally the same way, protecting and saving Jewish lives by killing and taking Jewish lives. If you were educated for a long time that the Jew are not human beings, and your nobel duty is to vanish them, but finally you found what you have been taught and told may be wrong. How pain you would be? The same thing as if you are a Christian, you found the Gospel of Juda is true?

When you reach the point, the Jew Police is taking "the third child" from each pair of parents for killing while assigning "the second child" to some parents with only one. You will feel what a "job" he is doing. And I can never imagine if I have a job like this.

Strong Recommended.

This movie is different than most of WWII related movies. It is not as serious as other movies which makes it unique and perhaps worth watching. Although it has fairly good storyline, it is definitely not as strong as movies such as the Pianist. There is no strong character growth and it is hard to tell who is really the main character. However, it is interesting to watch how the story incorporates drama, musical, and some light humour all into a war-themed movie. I was bit disappointed in the acting, especially the voice acting. The audio almost sounds like as if it was dubbed because the voice you hear does not really go with the character. I would have rather liked if they just spoke in German, not in English. One of the main reason I watched it was because of Heino Ferch. Unfortunately, his acting seems bit artificial when compared to his acting in der Untergang and der Tunnel.

Overall, it is a good film that could have been better.

I saw this movie in Mexico City, of all places, on Cinemax. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I think that's why I liked it so much. You were never sure who to trust; who was good and who was bad (though, obviously, the Nazis were easy to categorize as the bad guys). The movie is really about Gens and the position he is in between the Nazis and the Jews. It really isn't clear whether he does the right thing; indeed, it isn't clear that there IS a right thing to do. In this way I thought the movie was more three-dimensional than "The Pianist," in which we know that our hero is an innocent victim. Here, Gens could be an innocent victim or he could be a ruthless opportunist. Or he could be both. In my opinion, that is what makes a character interesting.

What impressed me the most about this movie, however, was the music. Please, if anyone could find a soundtrack for it, let me know. It was a great combination of opera, swing, and tango, and captured the passion and drama of the times. While it could be argued that "The Pianist" was, in Adrian Brody's own words, about how a man's love of music saved him during horrible times, that movie had almost NO music at all. This movie is a much better illustration of the theme of music and art being mankind's salvation.

To me, a good movie is one that makes me think, one that rattles around in my head long after it ends. This movie passes the test, as I've been thinking of it on and off for several days. Yes, it is an odd blend of humor, drama, and horror, but I thought its uniqueness and depth made it a great film.