preface
The sound of the German Nazi occupation of WarSAW during World War II and the heavy chains that cut across the road in the night were a terrifying silence. The subtext of a little boy's innocent voice is like a shooting star breaking through the gloomy night sky of the Jewish quarantine, with innocence in the unsophisticated... "The Island on Bird Street" is adapted from the autobiographical masterpiece of Holocaust survivor and famous Israeli writer Yuri Olev, a child who survived under the Nazi hunt, Alex, with his wisdom and bravery, breathed out warm flowers in the cold, implanted hope and persistence in the ruins.
At the beginning of the film, in an abandoned factory in a large abandoned jewish area enclosed by a high wall, the Jews inside live and work in fear, and the number is getting smaller and smaller, because the Nazis will come in from time to time to take some people, first women and children, then the elderly, and then they will all be taken away. Many people have to hide desperately in order to survive, and they can hide for as long as they can.
In a purge, a father wanted his father and son to escape, so he was ready to fight with the Nazis, but because someone whistleblowed, he failed, at this time the grandfather stood up in order to let his grandson live, his little grandson temporarily escaped the disaster, and the grandfather left only a hat on the street.
At this point, the story officially begins, and the little boy Alex is convinced that his father will come back to him, and he sticks to the abandoned factory, accompanied only by a mouse. When people reach the limits of survival, they will explode with unimaginable abilities and wisdom. There was no food, no water, and no escape from the Nazis and the remaining Jews who had escaped in order to survive. But he survived, even like Robinson, with a "tree house" of his own, and in that high corner he observed the "peaceful" world outside through a small window ledge and a telescope. That world does not belong to the Jews.
Alex met a little girl, a doctor, in a telescope. There is no doubt that this boy is intelligent, brave, and lucky, but what impresses people most is his persistence. In between, he had two chances to escape this seemingly desperate wait, and once he saved a Polish underground party, and the man who wanted to take him away, he refused. Once the little girl's mother wanted to take him away, and he also refused.
The only reason he stayed was the promise his father had given him: he would come to him! After countless nights of waiting, the Jewish Wall was torn down and more residents of the quarantine area, looking blankly at the approaching outside world. Finally, with the collapse of his tall tree house, the outside world was once again closed to him. He fell from a high place, his guinea pig died, and he climbed back into a cave at the beginning of the film every time his father came to him, and at the moment he was exhausted.
This movie is reminiscent of another immortal masterpiece of film history related to the subject, "Beautiful Life", the great father made up a beautiful lie for his son, and in this film, as if there is a kind of plot reincarnation, the hidden child becomes Alex, he believes that his father gave him a "lie", he waits for his father to appear, just like the son in "Beautiful Life", he believes that the father will keep his promise.
"When I come back, whatever happens, I'll come back to you, waiting for me...". It was a commitment to his children as a father, and it was also the belief that little Alex escaped the Nazis and survived alone. In the midst of the ruins, Alex builds his own "Rubin Island" and inserts matches into a sieve as a witness to the engraving of time, which is his hope and his match heaven.
The film was directed by Soren Klajabksen from Denmark. As a prominent Danish director, Klajabksen is also one of the initiators of the famous Dogma Manifesto. Filmed in 1999, Toshiro's Lament is his eighth film and the second of the Dogma Manifesto. The film follows the tenets of handheld photography, natural light, and location shooting, and won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival, making a great impact on the international film scene.
"The Lonely Island on Bird Street" has no bloody massacres, only the silent, terrifying and panicked uninhabited streets in the quarantine area known as the "box of death", and the vision is full of the desire and hopelessness between the destruction of the Jewish homeland and life and death. The feeling that death is coming at any moment is chilling. But the film is also accompanied by the brilliance and warmth of human nature from time to time, the doctor who is kind to rescue, the little girl who wants to take him away, and the fat Gestapo who raises the gun, and chooses to let it go at the last moment. Man is human because he has the right to choose.
The Island on Bird Street
Douban 8.3 IMDb 8.0
Director: Sauron Crayabkessen
Writers: John Goldsmith / Tony Grisoni
Starring: Simon Greg / Jordan Kizik
Genre: Drama / War
Country/Region of Production: Denmark / United Kingdom / Germany
Language: English / German / Latin
Release: 2001-03-18
Runtime: 103 minutes
Also known as: Champions from Heaven