User reviews

Completely based on true events, this movie shows how a jewish family was able to just barely escape germany, thereby preventing being locked up in a concentration camp and facing a certain death.

What makes this movie very relevant is that it shows the way the jewish family was received by people in the places and countries they fled to. To think that it was only the nazi germans that discriminated and blamed the jewish people during the 1930's, is shown to be a wrong assumption.

It is very interesting to see this story being told by what the youngest daughter of the family experieced. I think the title is a good example of what decisions this girl had to take and how she personally saw those decisions: e.g. "why can't I take my favorite pluche rabbit?".

Considering that it is not easy to produce a movie that has as a small child in the main role, I think the result is excellent. The cinematography, vehicles, clothing and sets were all of such high quality that you really deem yourself in the 1930's.

Concluding, I think this movie deserves a score of 8.1/10, thereby easily making an 8-star IMDb rating. If you decide to watch this movie, I also recommend that you search the internet on what happened with the family after the war ended: I guarantee that you will surprised and/or impressed by all the achievements.

Certain things may seem hard to imagine nowadays. Not just because of certain technological advances, but just what happened and what was done to people. Humans are capeable of ruthless and horrific things ... and while you are not going to be a witness to the holocaust itself, the dread, the agony, the fear ... all can be felt here. You feel for the family - their journey is quite something to behold.

If Germans are able to do one thing right, it is dramas about the third Reich, warnings of sorts. Even if some still may not be entirely convinced of the despicable things that happened back then, the movies can only try to educate us as much as possible (outside of history lessons that is).

Very well acted, very well told and a true story (even if there are some things that may have been heightend for story telling purposes - overall it does feel like it does the situation justice though).

Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl is a beautiful film. The performances are absolutely great all around, and Riva Krymalowski is an outstanding lead. The movie is full of admirable dialogue, and the direction as well as the cinematography are elegantly done too. Also, thanks to the very good editing the film moves along at a seemingly perfect pace. This is an important story and it works well as a movie suitable for both children and adults. As an adult you'll definitely get more out of it overall, but I think it's something children should see and will get much of value out of. Sadly I missed the first ten to fifteen minutes of it because my mum insisted on having nachos despite the long queue. I'll catch up on what happened in those early minutes of the film once it comes out. Please try to see this one, whoever's reading. I can't imagine that movie not captivating you, yes you, as well. Every single thing works on a wholly believable emotional level. It's a film that hits hard and lets you feel how painful having to face the ugliness of humanity at such an early age must be. It's some kind of adventure family movie with a bit of comedy in one way, but mainly a hard-hitting drama you won't forget any time soon.

Excellently played by Riva Krymalowski (Anna) and beautifully shot. The story is moving and told in a straightforward manner, mostly from Anna's perspective (otherwise there could have been more room for the development of the main characters).

Watch it only if you have nothing other to do.

It is slow paced but a beautiful movie set before Hitler took the power in Nazi Germany.

A true story about a Jewish family who escaped from their origin home. Nice places are shown here.

The children and the main actors made a very good job. Perhaps too long. 6/10.

Cinematography is excellent in the movie. Colors look stunning on a bluray. Coming to the movie it's just average. Child actor is good though

Watched this flick today with my 13 year old daughter. The lead actor girl - she is just so brilliant, and also extremely adorable. No words for this sweet little girl. She IS Anna, with all her heart and soul. Whole cast is wonderful, they all CAN act. And hats off to the script - it's just great, the situations are coming right out of daily life of a young refugee girl - all the dialogues are real, not that kind of "young kid actor are talkin like 20 year old adult" - we know from US movies. The kids here are taken seroiusly as kids, and sometimes they are just so sweet and sometimes just so sad - I guess Carline Link knows what it's all about to be a kid, and how to script it and how to make them acting "in role" in front of the camera. The whole story developes into a unique mix of drama and light entertaining - C. Link balances on the edge, and she manages not to fall off. Throughout the film, you can grab the historic background of forced jewish emigration out of Third Reich. But Link manages to let us be part of the family Kramer, to explore, what love in those hard times can mean. The true love parents are giving to their kids, whatever it costs, and the true love the kids give back. And it's even about the love between the parents, between sister and brother, and the love to their beloved uncle and to their beloved maid. You see, there was a lot of love to handle with - and Link was able to put this into an emotional, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking gem. Hitler murdered so many jewish people - but he couldn't destroy family Kerr (the original family, this film shows their lives, it's based on real events), God thank Judith Kerr for writing the original book 1971. Go and see it with your family - you will smile, laugh, and maybe shed a tear sometimes. And that is what a good film should do.

The German movie Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl (2019) was shown in the United States with the translated title When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit. The movie was co-written and directed by Caroline Link.

The Kempers are successful, intellectual, highly integrated German Jews. Max (Marinus Hohmann) is a theater critic and Anna (Carla Juri} is a concert pianist. Riva Krymalowski portrays their daughter, Dorothea.

The Kempers are fortunate to escape from Germany just before the Nazis begin to round up Jews. However, although they escape the Holocaust, they have to settle for life circumstances that are far below the standards to which they are accustomed. The plot of the film relates how they fared after they escaped.

I thought the actors were excellent, the story was gripping, and the direction was outstanding.

We saw this film virtually as part of the wonderful Rochester Jewish Film Festival. The movie has an anemic 7.1 IMDb rating. I thought it was much better than that, and rated it 9.

"When Hitler stole pink Rabbit"

This is a lovely movie! Beautifully filmed, excellent story and acting. It's 8/10 in anyone's money, but it's 9/10 in mine.

This German film (English subtitles) is the TRUE story of the early years of Judith Kerr OBE, and how she and her Jewish family escaped from Berlin & Germany 1933-1935.

One reviwer here has rather foolishly said that the story is set just before Hitler takes power. No, it isn't. The whole reason why the Jewish family is running is BECAUSE Hitler has just come to power. If he hadn't come to power, they wouldn't have to run. I guess some people just don't pay attention... Another reviewer complains that the dialogue is: "not what you would hear in the 1930s", and gives the film a low rating. Nonsense! How does that reviewer know how people spoke in 1933? Do they have a time machine? Put bluntly, anyone giving "When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit" less than 7 must have been watching a different one to the charming film I saw.

The costumes, vehicles and interiors all all pure 1930s. Young Riva Krymalowski as Anna Kemper, and Marinus Hohmann as Max Kemper are first class.

This is a moving and excellent film. Don't miss it just because other reviewers have said silly things about it.

When I saw the flick today, from the very first minutes of the movie I saw people talking and acting like today's people, set into some 1930s stage. I don't know if it's just the bad acting or the bad director that made the movie so implausible to follow.

The actors neither speak or act like people spoke or behaved back in the 1930s.

Within the first 10 minutes the words "Nazi" and "Hitler" were uttered several times - completely omitting that, back then, the true apprehended menace was the local authorities. Back then, the politics wasn't perceived as being the result of just one single mad man. It was a huge and, back then, popular organization that was ruling the country. I haven't read the original book; probably it's written the same way, but if it does, then it's, too, not using the words that have been used back then and written from a retrospective. So to me, this flic is rather a fictional wannabe than a realistic biopic.

Though I admit the film was portraying only a child's view on the situation, from my point of view it is emotionally quite vapid. All the important moments in the film that might have caused the slightest suspense or compassion were left out. Even the situation where the train conductor checks for the family name is depicted like they were just buying a pound of butter.

Which brings me to mention the completely irrelevant and petty musical score. I wouldn't call the few dull notes in the movie a "score" anyway. The musical score didn't at all convey any emotion whatsoever.

The depicted situations all were so nugatory staged and poorly scored, it was often utterly hard to bear. When the family left their mansion at the beginning of the movie I begged for some emotional musical score to convey the loss. But no, why bother viewers with emotion ...

Then, dialogs were often spoken like being read from a text sheet. The intonation was horrible. Important words were hidden in a discharge of words. No pause was disturbing the spate.

The only exception to the cast was the elder woman playing the housekeeper/nanny. She was acting marvellously, conveying emotions from every word and every micromotion. And I felt the actor depicting the son character acting quite authentic.

Finally, I don't quite unterstand why French scenes were subtitled while the Swiss actors (even the children) were to talk German instead of Swiss German. The children even were dubbed. Well, as I wrote before, the flick was implausible to many regards.

For everyone who wants to follow a year in a child's live bothered with some relocations but otherwise living a life everyone else lived back then, they will enjoy the movie. But for everyone else, expecting only a fraction of a quality flick like "Der Engel mit der Posaune", they will certainly be disappointed. To me this film is just a plain subsidied direct-to-video quality level production.

I just saw this wonderful film -- "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" -- at the New York Jewish Film Festival! I loved it and so did my friend, and so did the people next to me and so did everyone I spoke with after. Judging from their reactions I think the whole audience loved it! WHEN WILL IT OPEN IN THE US? I want to see it again with the Film Group I chair!

The movie shows, from the perspective of a child, the story of a jewish family fleeing in Europe looking for opportunity after escaping from Hitler.

The scenery is nicely made, nice shots in the alps, nice rooms. The script is well written, but they could have worked better on small details, such as dialogue/foreshadowing. They expect that the viewer might not catch everything that is going on, so they try to explain it with dialogue, which feels artificial sometimes. As an example, the girl cares throughout the whole movie about the lost rabbit, though she's never seen playing with such toys: they had to explain over and over the movie's title.

They cared too much into making the "good" characters look pretty and the "evil" characters look bad. In one scene in which the girl's mother complain about having a bad hair while her hair was clearly made to look pretty (she looks/is 20 years younger than her husband). Meanwhile the characters which are not friends of the family are always portrayed with strange looks.

The humor is good, though you might need to speak some German to fully understand it.

It's a good movie, though some small details could have been made with more thought. 8/10

I know I will be crucified now for my humble opinion (what times are we living) but this is what I think: Very bad directing, mediocre acting... and most of all: a very, very boring storytelling. I give two stars for the kids at least. P.S.: I do not get all the hype around this movie. Why should it be good? Because it is about Jews? Come on, have seen much better films on the 'Judenverfolgung' in the 1930s (Run boy run, for instance, a very interesting and moving gem to watch), but this one is just...boring.