In the Presence of Mine Enemies

I enjoyed this movie and I'm surprised I didn't hear more about it. Set in Poland in 1942 with it's main characters living in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. Housed in terrible conditions a society of Jewish Poles live a fearful existence under the rule of their Nazi oppressors. The main character of the story is the Rabi Adam Heller who lives with his 19 year old daughter trying to do what he can to comfort and care-for his dying people. The characters in this movie are well developed and the acting is believable. It shows the different emotional responses of an oppressed society whose entire population is dying off from starvation, disease, and by the hand of their captors. On one hand you have a pacifist Rabi whose faith in God is stretched almost to the breaking point, and on the other side a younger generation who believes in an eye for an eye and wishes to shed German blood for the thousands of Jewish lives lost. While this movie depicts the darkest period in mankind to date, it's more about the people themselves then the actual horrors. While it lets you know that terrible acts are occurring it doesn't morbidly display the terrible events scene by scene. It's a movie about people living in the face of terrible tragedy trying to hold on to faith in both God and in humanity itself. If you are interested in World War II and like thought provoking dramas -- then this is a movie for you. It's one that I won't be soon forgetting.