Plot: Sally dreams of becoming a movie star, but then the war starts and he is forced to hide his Jewish descent. At first, he hides in a communist orphanage, later he is enlisted as part of the Hitlerjugend. It's a hard life, but he finds meaning again when he meets Leni, a beautiful young woman.
Watches
August 26, 2024
Jojo Rabbit, but without Waititi's quirky comedy. Europa Europa offers a more straightforward war drama about a young boy who has to hide his Jewish descent while being enlisted in the Hitlerjugend. It's a solid setup and Holland builds a decent film around it, but there's not enough here to set it apart from a bunch of other WWII movies.
The performances are proper and the direction is good. It's never quite as sentimental as its US counterparts, but it's also not as bleak as the usual Eastern European dramas. The film is a bit long though and the middle part does drag a little, but all in all, this was better than I expected it to be. Not bad.