They Know it is all About RESISTANCE

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Digital platforms and VOD from writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz and IFC Films comes a story of a fight without making a sound with RESISTANCE.

Marcel (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young man who isn’t exactly living life the way his father Charles Mangel (Karl Markovics) would like in their small French village. He wants to be an actor like idol Charlie Chaplin and not follow the family butcher business. Marcel does have eyes for Emma (Clemence Posey) and uses his charm and humor to keep her attention.

Asked to help with children being sent to their small town, Marcel begins to see the effects of the war with Germany during World War II on the children, especially Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey). She has seen the horrors of being Jewish and arrives with a hundred other children.

Immediately Marcel recruits his brother Georges (Geza Rohrig) working with Emma’s sister Mila (Vica Kerekes) and Alain (Felix Moati). They find a local castle as a place to get the children healthy and help them feel safe, unfortunately, it is not to last. Knowing the Germans are close, Marcel and the group know that they must get the children away quickly.

The move is swift as they start to find places for them to stay. It breaks Marcel’s heart when he turns Elsbeth over to a priest who has taken in many children. The adults find a place to hide, then the arrival of Klaus Barbie (Matthias Schweighöfer) changes everything. His ruthlessness tests the group’s ability to save children with the first trip over the Alps to Switzerland.

Where Marcel starts and the stage that he ends up on is a journey beyond belief.

Eisenberg as Marcel is a young man who seems to care more about what he wants to do with his life than what the family wants. He doesn’t understand what the problem is until he finds something to believe in that is more important than himself. Eisenberg becomes Marcel with humor, a belief in the children and doing what is right. It is a beautiful performance.

Posey as Emma is a young woman who started helping children and surprised to see Marcel joining in. This is a woman who takes chances and lives through a horror of her own. Ramsey as Elsbeth is nothing short of absolutely lovely. Coming to terms with what has happened in her life, she finds humor with Marcel that gives her moments of joy in a world that has become joyless.

Kerkes as Mila is another strong character and the sister of Emma. They are both believers in what they are doing and put themselves in harm’s way where the children are involved. Rohrig as George is surprised in what his brother can accomplish when called on. Following the group gives him hope, even among the horror. Markovics as Charles is always at odds with his sons but there comes a point where the reasons become clear and their father joins them.

Now, Schweighöfer has the difficult role of playing Klaus Barbie because this character was someone who had no soul as far as I am concerned. This actor gave everything to the role knowing that the potential of ‘hating’ him would be there. I love an actor that throws caution to the wind to make sure a character is portrayed accordingly in an important story. Well done sir.

Other cast include Edgar Ramirez as Sigmund, Alicia von Rittberg as Regine, Toby Elman as Joseph and Ed Harris as George S. Patton.

RESISTANCE is a film telling the story of a man who was not famous for his saving of thousands of children. Most know Marcel Marceau as the silent actor who had an amazing gift of entertaining the masses. Now is a chance to know something about him that is even greater.

The film is set during a time that saving one another was the only way to survive. What Marcel, Emma, George, Mila and Joseph did was dangerous, yet they threw that aside to make sure that children who would have otherwise been murdered - survived.  

There are moments of complete agony to watch with Barbie making sure that he used everything in his arsenal to be feared. Yet, they continued on, continued forward even in the face of fear to do the right thing and that is everything in this film.

In the end – the best way to resist is to survive!

TO AUSCHWITZ and BACK: The Joe Engel Story

Jeri Jacquin

Currently on DVD from Ron Small, Anchor Media Group and the Holocaust Education Film Foundation is the amazing story TO AUSCHWITZ and BACK: The Joe Engel Story.

Joe Engel has an incredible story to tell in this documentary. He begins telling the story of his family in Zakroczym, Poland in 1927. They lived ten miles from the train station and his father used a team of horses to get anywhere. He learned early that being Jewish was a painful experience recalling when they were required to wear the yellow Star of David and others who were taken out and shot.

In the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazi’s took all their belongings and they spent a two day train ride arriving in a demolished city. The war had taken its toll leaving them with no electricity or running water with 20-30 people to a room. Living in fear of the Gestapo, they also feared the Jewish police who were equally as cruel.

He tells about the loading of the trains with people from the Ghetto not knowing where they were going but knowing they didn’t return. Eventually, Joe was 14 when they came for him separating the entire family. The train he rode on arrived at Birkenau to see the ironwork sign ARBEIT MACHT FREI (If you work hard enough you might survive) and after having his head shaved and tattooed with a number, he learned that Joseph Mengle was there as well.

Thousands and thousands of Jews were dispersed throughout the camps and Joe was the third person in a four bunk bed. Living in the cold the got up at 5 a.m. for roll call and for breakfast a slice of bread and they were set to work. Coming home at days end everything was done in reverse.

One day soldiers came looking for volunteers to go to Auschwitz and believing that Birkenau was the worse place on earth, Joe agreed to go. He learned to lay bricks and eat a little better but he also saw people starving and dying before his eyes. If anyone was sick, the doctor would report them to the Germans.

Joe is horrified still that one man could have such control over the German people causing them to treat fellow human beings with such atrocity. He learned himself of that cruelty when he was punished for an infraction yet he survived.

In January of 1945, Joe was 17 and was forced on the Death March where trains were waiting to take them to Germany. The trains did not have any roofs and it was snowing so feeling he had nothing to lose, Joe escaped. Now he is learning survival of a different kind not know who to trust.

He meets a man who introduces him to the Resistance and he becomes a freedom fighter going on missions to bomb German police stations. The Liberation in 1945 by the Red Army, he ate well for the first time since he could remember. Returning home, Joe was hoping that everyone would return to their home town. In the months that followed, no one came home. He left for the American DP camps until they sent him to the United States. Finding family in the U.S., he ended up in South Carolina.

After the war, Joe discovers that his some of his family survived the Holocaust but they wanted to know how he survived! As a way to never forget, his nephew Dr. Michael Engel tattooed the number 84009 – the number Joe was given when he arrived at the concentration camp.

In Charleston, South Carolina there is a wall that is in memory of six million Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. Joe believes it is very important to not forget the past but remind ourselves so that it will never happen to anyone else in the future.

The Holocaust Education Film Foundation was established in 2018 and has built an international, interactive online community one Holocaust survivor at a time. Through full-length documentaries, distributed globally through numerous platforms, the online site and educational programs, the 501c3 foundation seeks to ensure that we never forget.

TO AUSCHWITZ AND BACK: The Joe Engel Story is a story told exactly as it happened to a very young man in 1927 Poland. Joe tells it with such memorable detail that I could not help but soak in every word he said. Even when talking about what he did in the resistance, Joe held my attention as if holding my chin with his own hands and looking into my eyes.

It is that presence that brings Joe’s story the ability to reach deep down and remind us that those who died are to be honored and those who lived should be listened to with every fiber of our being. Thank you Joe, thank you.

The desert will bloom with flowers. It will be very glad and shout with joy! (Isaiah 35:2) and in that – Joe blooms.

RESISTANCE Takes on Survival after D-Day

Jeri Jacquin

On DVD from acclaimed novel by Owen Sheers, director/writer Amit Gupta, Omnibus Entertainment  Film Movement comes the story of a village finding their way to stand strong and show RESISTANCE.

It is 1944 during Nazi-occupied Britain during a difficult time in the war. D-Day has devastated the country while Panzer and Nazi troops invade the countryside. In a quiet village, this particular morning starts with the women waking up to find all the men have vanished.

Sarah’s (Andrea Riseborough) husband is one of the men but she believes he is gone to join the top secret group called BRO. Speaking with the other women, they agree that it is important to keep the home front safe and continue on.

What they didn’t expect was a Wehrmacht platoon setting up an outpost in one of the homes. Leading the platoon is Albrecht (Tom Wlaschiha), a commanding officer who wants to remain low-key while looking for those in the resistance. Albrecht tries to find a common ground with the women of the village but they are emotionally shut down.

What none of them know is that George (Iwan Rheon) is a young man from the village who wants to do his part. After meeting with Tom Atkins (Michael Sheen), he does what is necessary to make a dent in the activities of the group in his village.

When Albrecht befriends Sarah, it confuses everyone including Albrecht’s own men. It all comes to a head when the war moves closer to the village and each makes their own move to resist.

Riseborough as Sarah is just stunning! Her recent role in the stellar film NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and BIRDMAN show her strength in portraying memorable characters and Sarah is one of them. Stoic and conflicted, every bit of it shows in her behaviors and it is impossible not to feel it through the screen.

Wlaschiha as Albrecht is a commanding officer who shows this dual personality. One moment he is thoughtful, emotional and shows caring and then next he has no problem ordering the death of someone. He reaches out to Sarah’s character understanding the rejection but still wanting something other than what the war makes him feel.

Rheon as George is such a far cry from his role in the hit series GAME OF THRONES. In RESISTANCE he is a young man who believes he has a duty to protect the villagers and, as Tom says, he must be prepared to do the unthinkable.

Sheen as Tom has a small role here but it lays the groundwork and understanding of what the men of this particular village face. Kimberley Nixon plays Bethan, a young woman trying to understand what the war is doing to everyone. Melanie Walters as Helen Roberts is a strong woman but knows that perhaps flexibility might be the answer to surviving but the results are disastrous.

Other cast include Stanislav Ianevski as Bernhardt, Anatole Taubman as Sebald, Simon Armstrong as George’s Father, Mossie Smith as Ruth, George Taylor as Gernot and Sharon Morgan as Maggie.

Film Movement is celebrating its 15th year in 2017, Film Movement has released more than 250 feature films and shorts culled from prestigious film festivals worldwide, and last year it had its first Academy Award-nominated film, THEEB. Film Movement’s theatrical distribution strategy has evolved to include promising American independent films, documentaries, and an even stronger slate of foreign art house titles. Noted directors Film Movement brings are Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway, Bille August, Marleen Gorris, Takeshi Kitano and Ettore Scola. For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com.

RESISTANCE is an extraordinary film about the struggles of war added with the fear of survival through this particularly harsh winter. Trying to take care of their own, there is no way this village is going to accept occupation by anyone which is something Albrecht never understands.

It is totally realistic to think that several of the women in the village try to find a compromise with their ‘captors’, even if they know deep down there is no such thing as compromise. RESISTANCE takes the viewer on a journey through every human emotion with shocks that lead to the very end.

This cast is stunning together as Riseborough and Wlaschiha lead the entire film in so many directions it is impossible to take your eyes off the screen.

In the end – the lines are blurred between collaboration, occupation, duty and survival!