Excellent and inspirational movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2009)

At the time of the movie's release, much attention was being paid to Slumdog Millionaire's illumination of the relationships between brothers. Yet this movie has quite insightful -- and realistic -- things to say about families and brotherhood. The movie does not denigrate the actions of other Jews during the war, as some reviews have suggested, but instead calls attention to truly heroic actions and to human decency. While not without flaws, a fine movie. The acting is mostly good; there are some trite moments but these are balanced by truly moving ones. The movie does not portray Jews solely as victims nor solely as touching or saintly martyrs. And in these times, it is especially welcome to see heroes and the rebuilding of civil society in a period of terrible stress and crisis.