So, more than a description of a miracle with many faces, the film is praise of sense, in gloomy time, of every day. The line where he says, "I was very confused..." is the understatement of any film ever made. When you are put in a situation where the only two options you have are survival or death, there is no doubt that most of us would do anything to survive. Olivier, Olivier, Holland's next film deals with a similar plot. It becomes really funny, when one of them quote that 'Jupp' looks like a young Adolf Hitler. This man whose family was almost entirely wiped out must feel like he's the recipient of a great cosmic joke, with his survival as the punch line. For the most part in this film, Solomon's circumcised penis functions as the film's chief dramatic device in which the plot is driven. By trying to repair his "Vorhaut" or foreskin, to hid the fact that he is Jewish, Salomon, as do the other youth in their own unique ways, try to adapt the Hitler Ways of the time, but utimately is forced by himself, more than that force of others around him, to be true to himself and admit his Jewish heritage. Hitlerjunge Salomon a.k.a. Unfortunately this film bio-pic loses its own integrity by using far too much artistic license. Get info about new releases, essays and interviews on the Current, Top 10 lists, and sales. I was very surprised when I found out that this was a true story. | Wow, okay, Stalin had a son and he was captured, but why did they pack it here? Poland, France, Germany, Polish, Russian, German, New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Agnieszka Holland, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray, Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Holland, New interviews with Holland and actor Marco Hofschneider, New interview with Salomon Perel, on whose autobiography the film is loosely based, New video essay by film scholar Annette Insdorf. And the events added - his brother saving his life at the end for example - are not just not credible, but are so obviously added to the script for effect that they invalidate the real incidents in the film. And lesson about small things who must be the essence. Nothing much to say about the acting. Very well made and well acted film. Salomon was born in 1925,and is the fourth child of a Jewish family. They murdered millions of people and brainwashed children...but not every German was that evil. It is not The Pianist or Schindler List. The symbolism in this movie are really interesting. As World War II splits Europe, sixteen-year-old German Jew Salomon (Marco Hofschneider) is separated from his family after fleeing with them to Poland, and finds himself reluctantly assuming various ideological identities in order to hide the deadly secret of his Jewishness. Europa Europa (German: Hitlerjunge Salomon, lit. Like a book with illustrations - bones of words. A great insight of youth living during an Kulturkampf culture war. What is also not good, there are very highly improbable moments here and now - like those of Stalin's son, or barn on fire, or Polizei building bombing, or brotherly meeting - they are all very, very unnatural and utterly strange. That is a large order and Holland, a Polish-born, Paris-based director, carries it out with acute, ironic flair. Overall: Europa, Europa is a gripping tale of one man survivable during World War 2 and the Holocaust. I really admire Jewish people for enduring this neverending hatred against them; and I admire the Germans who are not afraid to put the magnifying glass on their ancestors' dirty deeds by making such marvellous movies about The Second World War. Since he knows good German, he manages to fool the Germans into thinking he was not Jewish. But it's not about Solly. Using the same kind of camera angles that got Spielberg praise in "Ryan", we see the hollowness of the war-torn psyche and the brutality that emerges in people during warfare. They identify with the central character of Saloman Perel, a German-Jewish boy who survives the Holocaust by hiding his identity in ever more difficult circumstances. Also the acting in this scene.. *facepalm* Gotta read the book .. this movie is just utter garbage. What's on TV & Streaming What's on TV & Streaming Top Rated Shows … I have been using this film for many years to teach the Holocaust to British 14-year-olds. I wonder why they used foreign actors and thus dubbing instead. Add to it, was the graphic stock footage of the war. [03 July 1991, p.E3]. This has absolutely got to be one of the best movies dealing not only with World War II, but also with the Holocaust. When, this summer, I saw "Saving Private Ryan", I was immediately reminded of this film. Europa, Europa by Agnieszka Holland is a very interesting film. After all, where else would you see a feuding Joseph Stalin and a Jewish Hitler dancing together? It's impossible not to admire the courage and the persistence of Salomon Perel. You would think, you wouldn't see nude as much due to this reason, but the movie has way too many nude scenes with him. This is one of the very few movies that the casting is just right, and everyone's the best actor of the movie. The film communicates its message with a clarity that makes one almost uneasy. If you are a student of German or of German history, then it is even more than a "MUST SEE"! Then, it is obvious that the film was made in the cheap and all those laughable plane models, highly unrealistic bombing scenes and rather sketchy big crowd frames show the mere lack of money, and that all is too obvious and really turns the attention away from following the plot. Very watchable, Europa, Europa is purportedly based on a true story. But the view is more large. The masks and the shadows, the good people and the territories in same color. None of them were use as sex appeal, but one scene was bit disturbing. Where can one begin to list this film's seemingly endless number of fantastic departures from reality?? Solomon Perel is a German Jewish boy who is trying to escape the Holocaust by masquerading not only as a non-Jew, but as an elite "Aryan" German in Nazi Germany's Poland and a 'communist' student in Soviet Union's Poland. This film does indeed take massive liberties on this remarkable man's life and who probably is a man of great integrity. Well, pretty illogical that he then later has sex with that convinced nazi woman in the train. From going to a Hitler Jugend school, to being next to German Nazis who would not hesitate to kill him if they found out, the tension you get for Solly is unnerving. Sparkls of love and pieces of a world.