God afton, herr Wallenberg

"God afton, herr Wallenberg" is perhaps one of the most bleak films I have ever seen. Even though it's a good film, I feel that it is very depressing and hard to shake off after you have seen it. The cinematography enhances this feeling brilliantly. The colours are bleak, the people are bleak, and the story (based upon real events) is bleak. A very depressing movie experience, but nevertheless a very well-made film, and Stellan Skarsgård is as brilliant as always.

In 1943 Hungary, Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg (Stellan Skarsgård), traveling on the train, is shocked to see Jews being killed and transported. In 1944, Wallenberg is reluctantly recruited to save the remaining Jews. In Budapest, he is the only hope for some twenty survivors in an apartment building against Nazi fanatic Ferenc Moser. The Russians are closing in. Though lies, bribes and audacity, he struggles to save the remaining 65,000 in the ghetto who suffers from one atrocity after another.

This is an amazing true story. Stellan Skarsgård does an amazing job. The plot is split between the original twenty and the thousands in the ghetto. I think it could be more intense if he goes from place to place without concentrating on a specific group of Jews. It could be a rolling trip from hell as he tries to stop one atrocity after another.

Raoul Wallenberg might not be one of the most recognizable names, but he was responsible for one of the noblest acts in the 20th century. He saved thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

Kjell Grede's "God afton, Herr Wallenberg" ("Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg") focuses on this, with Stellan Skarsgård playing the Swedish diplomat. The movie - Sweden's submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Film that year - casts him as someone who initially didn't take much in the events across Europe but soon realized that he had to take a moral stand. As the recently deceased Desmond Tutu said, neutrality helps the oppressor.

Excellent movie. Definitely see it.

I review this movie having watched it diagonally (as we say in french)but I have downloaded it and I'm adding English subtitles to follow the story correctly.

Anyway as a previous reviewer says it's a shame to see how such a story is not viewed by a greater audience.

These are facts without the usual melodramatics so consciously added by American directors.

Perhaps the movie should have been more explicit in the end credits about the facts that it is proved now that the Soviets have murdered that man although they pretended it was not the case. From the beginning his arrest was unlawful and the attitude of the Russians should have been condemned strongly.The allies did not want to hurt the Russians and observed the same attitude they had with the Katin murders.

But what can we expect from a country which is the equivalent of the Nazi regime and which has not change since the Stalin period in spite of their denials?

Today the only remaining interrogation is when did Wallenberg die. There are still searches but they are impaired by the obstacles put to the researchers to consult properly all the archives available and of course many compromising ones must have been deliberately destroyed...

Personally as I wrote in the forum, I feel terribly concerned by those events, my grand parents having disappeared in 1944 in Budapest while the Nazis were fleeing the country.

Altogether, the different scenes I've watched show these events coldly and the actors are very convincing in their different parts.

I cannot believe that only 2 viewers have commented (3 incl, me) on this incredible film. The acting is superb, the story is phenomenal and the sheer relentlessness of this film is a sight to behold. Stellan Skarsgård is so incredible an actor. He portrays Mr. Wallenberg excellently. The Eichmann character is only seen for seconds yet his presence is felt throughout the entire film. This I found to be very convincing. It is for shame that it hasn't had more acclaim, critical or otherwise. See it! Up there with any film relating to the Holocaust. It is unfortunately very hard to download from free sites and unless you speak Swedish you'll have a hard time understanding it unless it is seen with subtitles. You will not be disappointed.