Genre – War Drama- True Story
Time: 1 Hour 55 minutes
Platform: You Tube _ Free
Language: German
Director: Caroline Link
Cast: Riva Krymalowski (Anna Kemper). Marinus Hohmann (Max Kemper). Carla Juri (Dorothea Kemper). Oliver Masucci (Arthur Kemper).
Plot: It is two weeks before the German elections of 1933. Anna is 9 years old and dotes on her family , especially her father who records programs against the Nazi Party. She is thrilled that her father’s voice is on the radio. One morning she wakes up to find that her father is missing, even though he was sick. Her mother Dorothea, cautions Max and Anna, never to tell anyone what has happened – their father is in Switzerland, pending the election results. Hitler comes to power and the Kemper family has no choice but to flee to Switzerland. Anna is sad that she cant take all her books and her favorite toy, a pink rabbit.
In Switzerland, the family is together but new challenges abound. Arthur can’t get any work as the Swiss Government doesn’t want to antagonize the German government which is now ruled by the Nazis. Arthur and Dorothea go to Paris so that Arthur can get a job. The children stay back and are the objects of curiosity among the locals, as their German is ‘different’.
Arthur returns from Paris, takes the children with him to Paris, and an apartment in a somewhat run down neighborhood with a ruthless female landlord. A good meal becomes a luxury. They have to cope with French language which they don’t know beyond odd words. More challenges abound…
World war 2 has been endlessly covered from multiple angles – mostly political or military. But how do the events look to a child ? The world events as seen through the eyes of a child have a different dimension.
For Anna, everything is a magical event – including the moves to different cities. For reasons she cannot fathom , she think it is very natural. She asks questions why their favorite, affectionate housekeeper Hempei, cannot come and live with them in Switzerland. She doesn’t know what it is to be a Socialist and a Jew. She only knows that the Nazis are bad , and they have put a price of 1000 Marks on her father’s head. She wonders why her father’s head is so important ; she sees nothing extraordinary about it, in her daily life.
Her favorite uncle, Onkel Julius , is a zookeeper in Berlin zoo and regales her with tales of the various animals, especially the newborn elephant . The different photos of the grown up elephant show the passage of time . For Anna, again it is nothing but magic.
Her world collapses when she learns of the death of Onkel Julius. Even though he was supposedly ‘Aryan’, his grandmother was a Jew and that was sufficient for the Nazis to prosecute him, take away his job. The watch with which he used to impress her , now becomes her prized possession. She knows that she and her family are ‘different’.
She learns that the world is not as magical as it appears to her. The family plays a game with the increasingly grumpy , foul mouthed landlord , who chases them for rent which is due every week and which Arthur has trouble paying, due to his meager earnings.
Slowly it dawns on her that she and her family are different and it is for this difference that the world prosecutes them. Her innocent queries to her parents often result in answers whose meaning she cant fathom but steadily learns over a period of time.
She has a book on famous personalities who all had a difficult childhood. She thinks she will ultimately be famous and that is why she is having all these constant difficulties in her childhood.
This is not so much a “Jewish story” as much as it is a human story. What flight means and the loss of roots in any one place can mean to someone who is rootless and is yearning to put down roots in one place, thus signifying constancy and predictability.
The true story concludes with the family on a boat to England as her father has found work as a scriptwriter . She is sure that the unfathomable English language is something she will soon learn.
The last scene of the film is of the real writer Judith Kerr and her father , and how her journey was mirrored in the film.
Its on You Tube; catch it before it disappears (turn Auto Translate ON )
Real History – 5 out of 5
Script – 5 out of 5
Story – 5 out of 5
Direction – 5 out of 5
Production Design – 5 out of 5
Performances – 5 out of 5
Total – 5 out of 5