The Island on Bird Street

I don't know if the story's true - it might be. Makes you think. At times makes you even feel that it is real - right in very front of you.

I found myself from all the hiding games. The boy's events were partly an adventure - playing hide and seek with the gestapo (panthers) all by himself with his assistant Snow (Friday). And partly a nightmare where the war grips everything away and leaves you no choice but to crawl into your hideout and cry. You really feel&fear for the kid when soldiers come to find the last of the Jews again and again and again...

I think the director made quite a decent job (at least above the average) by telling the story so visually. Not too much talking here - and it is mostly in English, which is odd. Although some scenes I would've done differently.

I didn't know the composer was Z.Preisner until read it here, but you sure will notice a meister at work. At least when the ending credits roll.

In Poland, the eleven year-old Alex (Jordan Kiziuk) lives with his father Stefan (Patrick Bergin) and his uncle Boruch (Jack Warden) in a Ghetto hidden when the Germans make the "selection" to send people to the concentration camps. When the dwellers are withdrawn from the Ghetto to the trains, Alex stays alone with his house mouse Snow waiting for the promised return of his father. Along the months, he stays hidden in a derelict building reading "Robinson Crusoe" and other books. His routine life changes when a German soldier will shoot two Polish resistance members and Alex kills him with his gun.

"The Island on Bird Street" is a little unknown gem based on a true story of survival of an eleven year-old boy in a Ghetto in the German occupied Poland. Jordan Kiziuk has good performance and the music score is excellent. In 1997 it was successfully released on VHS in Brazil but unfortunately was forgotten by the distributors. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Coragem e Esperança" ("Courage and Hope")

This movie is fantastic, one of the best I have ever seen in a long time. I was surprised to see that it is from 1997 because until I turned onto BBC2 today, I had never even heard of it.

Although this is a simple, some say linear story of Nazi Germany vs the Jewish community telling of one boys struggle to survive on his own to wait for his father, it really draws you in.

In the same vein as movies like DARYL, or Finding Neverland, it does not rely cheap gimmicks. Instead we find a gripping a story that draws you in. You become attached to the characters and really feel for them. It stirs up quite a bit of emotion. I was dancing all over the room at one point biting my nails.

This is a fantastic story with some brilliant acting. The main focus is on Alex, played by Jordan Kiziuk. Im surprised he hasn't done anything before or since as he played a brilliant part, even if his accent is a little dodgy.

The director has done a fantastic job in the telling of the story. It is one of those underrated films that you must watch if you ever get a chance.

Director Soren Kragh-Jacobsen sure picked his young protagonist well -- Jordan Kiziuk as Alex in the Danish film "The Island on Bird Street" practically carried the film by his undeniably superb performance. The film is about a Jewish young boy, bordering teens, his survival "adventure" in Poland during Nazi occupation.

How heartwarming can an uneasy wartime premise be? It actually achieves beyond "Jakob the Liar" -- Alex's courage, his creative ways in taking care of himself when he's all alone, his tenacity and steadfast belief that his Dad would come back for him…hold its own. And there is suspense: we fear for him, we want him to succeed, we pain, and we felt angst and joy with him. The set of his hide-out is somehow graphically appealing: a solitary, broken brick wall arrangement, with atmospheric lighting, and momentary interludes: a solitary dog on a street, paper off the ground dancing in the wind…

Music is by Zbigniew Preisner (Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Trois couleurs: Bleu" 1993, "Rouge" 1994, "The Double Life of Veronique" 1991, also "Fairy Tale: A True Story" 1997), hauntingly complements the plot. This may not be of Hollywood stature likened to "The Schindler's List", yet it's a small film with powerful impressions. It's a life-affirming story. Alex hanged on to hope -- we can, too.

Not least because it is apparently a true story. Alex is an 11 year old boy, stuck in an almost empty city awaiting his father's return. The plot, though slow is tense, holding an audience's attention throughout. What I most liked about this film was the sense of realness, as I watched it(though the language was English) I felt that somehow I was in fact watching an actually documentary as it unfolded. the clothes the sets the streets, everything was real. The acting is so well performed I could easily assume that these were real people, in particular Jordan Kiziuk's performance of Alex. The ending was tear-jerking, and I mean big blobby tears that swam in torrents. It was an all-round wonder to watch.