LFM History 273 Review

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2018)

This film, though not historically accurate, provides a moving account of the power of familial love. Although it is strange to describe a Holocaust movie as "heartwarming," this film focuses on the human cost of genocide by following a couple's courtship, marriage, and life together in pre-war Italy. When the couple, who now have a young son, are taken to a concentration camp, the father makes the whole experience out to be a game in order to shield his son from the reality of their situation. In most depictions of the Holocaust, one is left with unsettling images of hungry, sick, broken bodies and the credits include a tally of the lives lost to camps. This film, however, chooses to focus on survival, the invaluable relationship between parent and child, and the lasting impact of loss (this last bit is felt mostly through the viewer's interpretation). Although it is to be taken with (more than) a grain of salt, it is a worthy member of our cultural canon regarding the Holocaust.