Filip

Unusual angle for a WW2 story with a specific refugee situation I have never seen evoked in a WW2 movie. The Polish young man at the center of this story is a difficult "hero" to like in spite of his obvious plight, because of his brutally hard shell and the death wish at time that seems to motivate his acts against his survival skills. But his moral evolution can be understood well enough, and the unknowns in his trajectory can be easily imagined. Meanwhile life in the Stuttgart hotel where he works in 1943 as a presumed French waiter is a microcosm of what happens to Germany as despair, decay, food scarcity, army defeats and survival needs vs morality sketch the end in sight for the crumbling nazi empire. I liked how the movie mixed German, Polish, French, Italian and (maybe?) yiddish dialogues seamlessly. Subtitles in my eyes are not a problem but an enhancement to a story like that. It is a story of survival in a foreign land under brutal circumstances: varied languages are a necessary part of the hostile landscape. The actor who plays the main role is perfect in his ability to charm and scare at the same time.

I was going to abandon watching it after the propaganda-style beginning, but I'm glad I continued watching, as all the remaining part of the movie was unexpectedly original and devoid of clichés. The naked bodies and the love / sex scenes are beautifully filmed. The main actor does a terrific job, showing a very wide range of feelings, from ironical debonair nonchalance to despair beyond tears. The entire cast is quite good, the cinematography recreates a believable atmosphere of the years in which the German people were beginning to realise they were going to lose the war, in spite of all the methodical atrocities they perpetrated or merely witnessed. Quite an unexpected ending...

The portrait of a surviver. A young Pole man, losting his family, working, grace to help of a friend, in great hotel, hidding his identity , having sex, succes and terrible cynism about life.

Discovering true love and true friendship. And understanding, after lost of best friend, after revenge , than he can survive only being alone.

Beautiful locations, nice story, interesting performances . A testimony , in other manner than ordinary one, about life under totalitarian regime. Not original idea but Eryk kulm has the precious science to offer to his Filip the right traits to be more than another Jew in terrible circumstances. A nice work of Victor Meutelet as Pierre.

A film about what real matters. Not impressive but honest at whole.

Am rating this a 6/10 simply for the good cinematography.

If the idea is to show a lothario type character who go around seducing women but can't come to terms with the comparatively lucky position he is in compared to his fellow persecuted Jews, then the director simply got to find a good looking guy to make it believable!

Having women fawn over the odd weasel-ey looking bloke playing the main character is just silly-laughable. I guffawed quite a lot throughout with all these actresses having to pretend he's a sexy good looking hunk when he's totally not! Haha!!

Totally ruined the whole movie which in my mind is just a way to throw away some million$ to make a Naked Gun running gag. 😂

I don't usually go for foreign language films but I chose this movie as it had been filmed where I live in Torun, Poland. I'm so glad I decided to see it. It's a very well-made drama set in Frankfurt during WW2. The story focuses on the central character of Filip who is actually a Jewish Pole passing off to be a Frenchman. Despite being a Polish film the language is 80% German with some French and Polish thrown in. I highly recommend this film. It's thought-provoking and also riveting. It was also great to see my beloved Torun up on the big screen. It had been converted very well into 1940s Germany and it looked great.