Broken Promise

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I saw this movie at the Jewish Film Festival in Melbourne and I learned later that this was the Slovak entry for a foreign language Academy Award. The movie is a historical movie, and it seems that the director took a lot of trouble to deliver authenticity. The movie feels very authentic, and since the real Martin Friedman appears in it at the end, one may assume that the events depicted in it were true. This film reminds me of two other movies, "Defiance" and "The Shop on main Street." Although "Defiance" takes place in Belarus, it also depicts the life of Jewish partisans in Eastern Europe, and from this point of view there are many similarities. The same period as the beginning of this movie is described in 'The Shop on Main Street'. The movie begins in 1938, when the country called Slovakia was created after Hitler's breakdown of Czechoslovakia. And both films take the trouble of depicting the decent Slovaks who lived their life alongside Jews and did not hate them. The Jews in Slovakia were not very religious, and society was quite open towards them until 1938. Martin was playing soccer with non-Jews, the coach loved him and all seemed to be well. With years passing however, the attitude towards Jews in Slovakia gets worse, and they find it more and more difficult to hide. One of the strongest scenes in this movie is when Martin is hiding in a monastery where the staff was taking care of Jewish patients at varying degrees of dementia, and the villagers organize a pogrom to kill the Jewish patients. It is impressive to realize that the producers of this Slovak movie did not try to embellish or remove this scene, because it depicts the ordinary Slovaks in a very bad light. Like in "The Shop on Main Street" however, Slovak society is not monolithic, and in both movies there are many decent people who take risks and help Jews. The movie depicts seven crucial years in the lives of Martin Friedman and Slovakia, including the Arianization that was also the topic of 'The Shop on Main Street'. From an artistic point of view, the latter was a better movie, but from an historical point of view the viewer is exposed to much more Slovak history in this movie. It was very disgusting to see that there was no difference in attitudes towards Jews among the pro-Nazi civilians and the Soviet-controlled partisans, even though, as the partisan leader says 'The Red Army forbids antisemitism'. A very realistic and courageous movie.

I saw this film at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival. Mr. Friedman-Petrasek was present for the screening, and answered questions afterward. Like another writer, I was struck by the possible parallel to "Defiance." By contrast with that film, I was particularly impressed with the evenhanded honesty with which the story was told. In particular, the way in which the Slovak partisans were NOT presented in a romanticized heroic light. The film is beautifully shot on location in Slovakia. The production quality gives no hint of a limited budget, though I can't imagine that the producers had a lot of money to play with. The tragedies of the Slovak Jews, including many members of Mr. Friedman's family were well told, if familiar to someone like myself who has seen many Holocaust tales. But most tales of the resistance are overtly heroic affairs. * * * SPOILER * * * However, here the partisans hiding out in the mountains are a distinctly rag-tag group. The first time Martin gets a chance to shoot at a German, the Russian commander of the partisans tells him to hold his fire until the car passes, because he's spied a wild boar that can provide them with food. "Shoot the pig" he orders. There are many other incidents in which the practical need to survive takes precendence over idealism or honor. These men are not saints. Some of them are not even decent, they're just allied against the Germans. Russians are in command, and a another soldier is very possibly a German army deserter. Anti-Semitism is prevalent, and Martin decides it is best to keep his Jewish heritage a secret, which as it turns out, is a very good idea. Yet, despite the serious shades of gray, this is a hopeful story. Martin stumbles at a number of turns, but survives. His is an honest story of hope and determination. There are few enough films coming out of Slovakia these days, and this is a very good one. I greatly enjoyed the film, and I hope it will prove successful for the talented team that created it.

Very good film on Holocaust and Second World War in Slovakia. Well developped, with good cinematography, good script and dialogs, good actors. The movie explores many important elements such as Jewish culture, Anti-Semitism amongs Slovaks, Partisan military culture, and it allows to deepen the narrative. I strongly recommend this Slovakian historical biographical film.

This is the worst World War movie I ve ever seen. The story line is ridiculous, the characters are bad. Looks like a bad scholar project. Dont waste your time, not all movies about jewish suffering and nazi abuse are worthy, this is not a magic formula, you need much, much more, and this mediocre film falls very short.