Europa Europa (1991)

The Worst Film Ever

A different way of telling a story

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

A boy (Marco Hofschneider) in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Academy Award: Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, but lost the award to "The Silence of the Lambs". It had been expected to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film but Germany did not submit it.One can understand why Germany was a bit embarrassed. Even today (2015), it is impossible to live down their Nazi past. No one thinks badly of Germany now, and almost everyone alive at the time is today gone. But it's something that will haunt them for a while yet. Films like this probably do not help, even if they tell a powerful story.

Europa Europa AKA Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon" is a very interesting movie. The film should not be confused with the 1991 Lars von Trier film Europa, which was initially released as Zentropa in the United States to avoid such a confusion. If you do find yourself as a viewer, be glad that you don't live in a world like this, anymore. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, the movie is loosely based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel. He's play in the film by Marco Hofschneider. Solomon Perel is a German Jewish boy who is trying to escape the Holocaust by masquerading not only as a non-Jew, but as an elite "Aryan" German in Nazi Germany's Poland and a 'communist' student in Soviet Union's Poland. Without spoiling too much, there is a lot of disturbing things in this film that might make this movie hard to watch. This film does indeed take massive liberties on this remarkable man's life and who probably is a man of great integrity. I didn't like how much Solomon in the film has such negative characteristic throughout the film. Unfortunately this film bio-pic loses its own integrity by using far too much artistic license. The symbolism in this movie are really interesting. The title, Europa, Europa stands for the duo of Europe's political beliefs at the time and trying to fit in. Olivier, Olivier, Holland's next film deals with a similar plot. For the most part in this film, Solomon's circumcised penis functions as the film's chief dramatic device in which the plot is driven. Since he was circumcised at a young age, Solomon is going through a degrees of anxiety that is common with young men: feeling of loss of control over one's life. It is the one thing he can't change about himself. No matter how hard he tries to change his identity, his circumcision is the one thing that can expose "Jupp" as a Jew. For example, a romance with a German girl, Leni (Julie Delpy), who wants to conceive a child for the Fuhrer, proves dismal; because he can't consummate the relationship due to that fact. You see him, break down due to this. This adaptability is conveyed effectively by Marco Hofschneider in a strong example of a great performance from him. Still, I felt the true psychological depths of the character were nearly unexplored. Nudity plays a big part of this movie as he always cannot let anyone see him bathing. You would think, you wouldn't see nude as much due to this reason, but the movie has way too many nude scenes with him. While, the graphic nudity didn't hurt the movie, too much. It was indeed, distracting, as there were tons of scenes that he didn't need to nude in. None of them were use as sex appeal, but one scene was bit disturbing. Due warning, Solek has a scene where string and rubber bands in various painful ways to simulate a foreskin. It's really hard to watch. The violence was also bit graphic, but it really show you, how brutal, it was to live at that time. Add to it, was the graphic stock footage of the war. The stock footage was bit overused in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, there were some lighter side of this mostly gloomy movie. Much of the humor in the film, come with the fact that the Nazis officers have no clue that he is a Jew. It becomes really funny, when one of them quote that 'Jupp' looks like a young Adolf Hitler. Another funny moment is when a Nazi "expert" in "racial science' came to the school to teach how to detect Jews and use 'Jup' as a demonstration on how pure Aryan stock, he was. After all, where else would you see a feuding Joseph Stalin and a Jewish Hitler dancing together? I do find the movie use Deus ex machine plot line way too much in this film. The movies has a lot of great scenes. The whole painted-over windows of trolley crossing the off-limits Lodz Ghetto was just so surreal. I wish the movie focus a little more on life in Soviet Union, how hard was it for Solomon to lecture young Communists about the non-existence of God, when he was practicing Jew. The movie moves in a really too quick pace. The music adds to the dramatic tension, but is somewhat forgotten. Since the film was made from Europeans. It's hard to find a movie copy has English subtitles. While, the movie is now in DVD, you wouldn't find a lot of English dubbing version. In my opinion, it's better off to find the English subtitles, because you would miss the fact that the actor that plays Solomon speaks both great Russian, English and German in this. Overall: Europa, Europa is a gripping tale of one man survivable during World War 2 and the Holocaust. It might seek a bit lacking verisimilitude at times, but it's still watchable.

This international co-production (Germany, France, Poland) unfolds a real story of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy whose most teen and youth years remained under the oppression of both Nazis and Soviets, mostly during World War II (1938-1944). Being a Jew was "non-welcome" in both dictatorships, under Nazi rule, however, it was oppressed and punished directly, thus Solomon had to become Jozef and became an elite "Aryan" German to almost all around him. Thanks to enormous luck, knowledge of languages and desire for survival, he managed to stay alive in different places and rules (by the way, he is still alive, although was born in 1925!).All this is aptly depicted, and despite the tragic background, there are several absurd, hearty and even comic moments in his unwanted journey between Berlin, Lodz and Grodno, reflecting the fast changes of that period (no wonder that the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Academy Award: Best Writing Adapted Screenplay). The cast is even and plausible as well, particularly Marco Hofschneider as Solomon/Jozef who is always visible. Perel appears briefly as himself in the finale.A good and versatile film (there are not too many dealing with events both in the Soviet and Nazi regimes), but the non-original title referring to Europe is confusing, providing a distorted and/or uninviting picture about the real nature of the film.

Europa Europa is the remarkable true story of Salomon Perel, a young teenage Polish Jew, who passed himself off as, not merely German, but also, as a member of the highest order of the Hitler Youth, while all the time sticking to his Judaic roots, in order to survive the war. The storytelling aspects of the film gives this it drive and purpose and are excellent - based on Perel's extraordinary autobiography it avoids extrapolation and sticks to his tale.It scores very high in two vital aspects - one, the script is superb, (It was Oscar nominated) and two it was shot in German which given it subject matter was no small achievement.The film is well directed, though because of it's use of studio lighting and bright colors it has not aged as well as some of the Holocaust corpus.There are perhaps better films and books that express the absolute evil of the death camps, Weisel and Levi being two prime examples in authorship, but this is a unique perspective as it is not centered on the Shoah but rather on the unique conundrum of daring to survive by living in the heart of the Nazis' twisted dream, and one definitely worth your time - it is a truly fascinating true story with some strong adventure and drama elements.