Review of Europa Europa (1990) by Elizabeth S — 24 Sep 2012

This film is a masterpiece, a profoundly moving wartime narrative based on the memoir of a man who lived through the second World War in Poland and Germany where he concealed the fact that he was a Jew and ended up in a school where he was taught virulent racist theory.

The twists and turns of Solomon Perel's tragic, funny, and picaresque life are vividly portrayed in this movie, expertly directed by Agnieszka Holland with a spectacular performance by Marco Hofschneider in the lead role.

Perel's eventful life during the war is full of heartache and often funny coincidences that seem like something out of the slightly artificial fiction of 18th century British literature but Holland tells it straight and manages to convey a worldview through this film which captures the entirety of life's rich pageant through the brutality, hope and sadness of that man in that time.