The Song and the Silence

A very moving film of a Jewish family in a little town in Poland before and after the German invasion in 1939. Through their eyes we can feel their joy and their sorrow when suddenly, their rich religious life is torn apart by the Holucost. Filmed in black and white, the story has a real, almost documentary quality that is beautifully portrayed by unknown actors. The film was shot on location in the Catskill mountains at a bungalow colony. The lean budget of the film is revealed when such attempts of reality fall short of their mark. Of course to shoot the film in a real Polish town would have led to a more convincing atmosphere but apparently the director of the film did not have that option. In spite of these visual compromises the film succeeds in communicating the joy and anguish of a family and a people about to suffer one of the greatest outrages in history.