Jews Suffering Courageously (again).

Rating: 6/10 (18 December 2011)

It's those Holocaust days of WW2 (again), so here comes yet another movie to remind modern Germans how beastly their grandparents were. And as the people they're being beastly to are Jews, then there's still no choice for the square-headed ones but to endure their flagellation with fortitude.
Based on a true story, as they say (which is often a devious way of countering incipient criticism), Daniel Craig and Leiv Schreiber play Jewish brothers who lead a small group of survivors into the wild forests of eastern Europe when the great slaughter starts. By degrees, word gets around, and more fugitive Jews keep turning up. It's a sort of 'Schindler's List', but without the list. Lots of mouths to feed means lots of foraging, and inevitably attacks on (and from) Germans. After many hardships and privations, they triumph. That's about it really.
Young Jamie Bell also features as a junior sibling, but he was such a huge hit as our ballet-dancing miner's son that I kept expecting him to turn up in tutu 'n' tights - which is probably asking too much of a refugee partisan.
This is just a set-piece wartime drama. All of the usual elements are addressed. Script, acting, directing, editing & camera-work are all by-the-numbers. Dunno how closely it follows the truth as I've never heard this story before. Can't imagine it leaving any lasting impressions anywhere, not unless you're a descendant of those who took part in the original conflict anyway.