An excellent film, that seems to have missed a point with many viewers

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2007)

I've had an interest in German history for a while, but it has taken me some time to get to this film.
I wasn't sure what to expect, having been told it is "heart rendering", "devastating" and "a comedy set against the holocaust". I was pleasantly surprised.
While anyone who is into historical epics which have spent billions on research for accuracy is going to hate this film, it does something which so few Holocaust movies do - it looks at a story of an individual and there methods of coping.
While I'm not at all certain that this story could have ever happened this way, it does explore the fact that, even in the darkest times in our history, we can find some light and I felt this was portrayed beautifully. Comments surrounding the death and destruction of the concentration camp are very misguided - while this lacks the powerful and terrifying images of films like Schindlers List, it manages instead to portray the horror of the Nazi's as an individual horror, which is often simply taken in ones stride.
A film which, on its own, would mis-represent the holocaust but, with all the other films out there, is a great new, and refreshing, take on those dreadful events.