Ghetto

In 1942, in Vilna, the Nazi annihilate 55,000 Jews and squeeze the 15,000 survivors in a seven blocks ghetto. The twenty-two year old sadistic commander Kittel (Sebastian Hülk) is assigned to administrate the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania, becoming the master of life or death. When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah (Erika Marozsán) sneaking with one kilo of beam stolen from the German army, he sentences her to death; but when he is informed that she was a former successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote shows in the ghetto. The Jew Chief of Police Gens (Heino Ferch) uses the theater and a sewing factory to save as much lives as he can; in his ambiguous position, he kills Jews to save lives of others.

"Ghetto" is an impressively cruel and depressive movie. The first point that impresses the viewer is certainly the cruelty and sadism of Kittel. Sebastian Hülk has an awesome performance in the role of the despicable Kittel and deserved a nomination to the Oscar. The screenplay does not spare the reality of the lives of the dwellers of this ghetto and their fight to survive in times of war, including the beginning of their resistance. However, it does not show the final destruction of the ghetto after a failed uprising on 01 September 1943 organized by the first Jewish partisan unit in Nazi-occupied Europe (the "Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje" - the United Partisan Organization). The beauty of Erika Marozsán and the dramatic and conflictive position of Gens brilliantly performed by Heino Ferch, are also amazing. The music score gives a touch of class to this great Lithuanian production. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Ghetto"

This movie has apparently not been released in the US, but I found it available on DVD in Beijing, of all places. It takes place during the war in the ghetto in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania and shows the brutality of war, with a Nazi leader forcing Jews to perform as actors, and using the Jewish police to carry out orders. It is somewhat melodramatic with some comedic elements, but overwhelmingly brutal. I don't know is this is based on a true story or fictional. The acting was generally good, with some high and low points. There have been better holocaust films, but as one of the genre, this one is not too bad. The film was in English, but was likely dubbed. Amazingly it was a Lithuanian-German production, which in itself is somewhat ground breaking.

I stumbled across this film by accident. And boy am I glad I did. I was hooked from the very start. A superbly made film. A great script, story and camera work. And the lighting is very good.The story is about a lot of Jewish people living in a ghetto during the 2nd word war in Lithuania. The main plot confuses you with the story of a German officer,who you can't tell or not is trying to save the Jews in the Ghetto. He was/is an artist and so he is drawn to the Jewish artists within the ghetto. They form a theatre while the Russians get ever closer to liberating them. And well I won't say any more and won't spoil it for anyone. Just watch it. It is an awesome film.

First of all, I had to say if you don't finish it you would never feel its goodness. Pianist described the Warsaw Ghetto from a pure view of a Jew. Schudler's list described from a view of a German with Humanity. Both are not enough. This movie shows a German (Nazi) Officer's mental struggling between evil and an artist. Between ghost and human. The same time, a Jew police of Ghetto also struggles mentally the same way, protecting and saving Jewish lives by killing and taking Jewish lives. If you were educated for a long time that the Jew are not human beings, and your nobel duty is to vanish them, but finally you found what you have been taught and told may be wrong. How pain you would be? The same thing as if you are a Christian, you found the Gospel of Juda is true?

When you reach the point, the Jew Police is taking "the third child" from each pair of parents for killing while assigning "the second child" to some parents with only one. You will feel what a "job" he is doing. And I can never imagine if I have a job like this.

Strong Recommended.

This movie is different than most of WWII related movies. It is not as serious as other movies which makes it unique and perhaps worth watching. Although it has fairly good storyline, it is definitely not as strong as movies such as the Pianist. There is no strong character growth and it is hard to tell who is really the main character. However, it is interesting to watch how the story incorporates drama, musical, and some light humour all into a war-themed movie. I was bit disappointed in the acting, especially the voice acting. The audio almost sounds like as if it was dubbed because the voice you hear does not really go with the character. I would have rather liked if they just spoke in German, not in English. One of the main reason I watched it was because of Heino Ferch. Unfortunately, his acting seems bit artificial when compared to his acting in der Untergang and der Tunnel.

Overall, it is a good film that could have been better.