A 8-year-old Jewish boy Srulik flees from the Warsaw ghetto in 1940s in order to survive. He hides his Jewish identity and introduces himself as a Christian Polish boy Jurek Santiak. He goes through a lot of things. He even has an accident that makes him handicapped. After World War II ends, Srulik still acts like Jurek Santiak. When he is about to forget his Jewish roots, he meets someone who reminds him of his Jewish identity. Thanks to him, Srulik embraces his own identity again. He goes to an orphanage. Years later, he moves to Israel and meets his missing sister there. He gets married and has a family.
The movie starts too fast. I mean, the sequence of events are a bit complicated in the beginning. I'd prefer a proper timeline of events. We see Srulik's mother and father from the flashbacks when he dreams or thinks of them. The storyline is good though. It is based on true story of Yoram Israel Fridman and it is adapted from Uri Orlev's novel. You feel really bad for Srulik/Jurek most of the time. His survival skill is definitely worthy of commendation. He is such a tough boy for his age. He endures a lot of things and he overcomes them all. When he has a mental breakdown, you feel for him and his crying breaks your heart. Whenever he meets self-seeking and merciless people, you get totally mad at those people for their existence and ignorance. Whenever he meets tender-hearted and well-disposed people, you feel happy and thankful that people like that actually exist. Because those large-hearted people contributed a lot to the young boy's survival by providing him food, shelter and advice. Although Srulik/Jurek had an unlucky childhood, he was lucky because he survived those unbearable 3 years and years later, he found his sister and had his own family. So, he got to be happy in the end in spite of all the things he lost in the past. It is so nice and hopeful to see that some people actually managed to survive and to put their life together. After watching the movie, I found out that Srulik/Jurek was actually portrayed by two people, not one. Yeah, the twin actors portrayed the same character. I couldn't tell the difference based on their looks. Maybe if I had known about the twin actors, I'd have paid more attention to the character's appearance. Therefore, I can not tell which twin acted better. So, they were really compatible after all.
In conclusion, the movie begins in a sad note but it ends in a happy note. I guess, it is one of the rare World War II related movies that have a happy ending in spite of all dramatic, tragic and traumatic events.
