Victim and witness

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2003)

The first part of the movie shows us a vivid image of the horror of Nazi domination in Poland particularly in Warsaw and especially over the Jewish people object of daily violence and humiliation. We are spared nothing of the sheer brutality of those butchers and the reproduction of several aspects of everyday life in the occupied city is shown in a very realistic and convincing way. In the second part the protagonist (a renowned Jewish pianist) without ceasing to be a victim manages by hiding himself until the end of the occupation and thus becomes also a terrified witness of all the events which took place in Warsaw between 1942 and 1945 namely the ghetto and the city uprisings and finally its liberation by the Red Army. He owes his survival after all not only to good luck but also to the help of friends and foes with human feelings namely a member of the Jewish police created by the Nazis and a German officer who listens to him playing piano for the first time after the beginning of his ordeal. This is a climax scene which will make you swallow a lump in your throat out of emotion while watching it. It's a scene which will remain in the History of Cinema. This is more a realistic movie than a pathetic one though it has got enough pathos to arouse your deepest emotion.