Film Reviews by JB

When we received this DVD it was set to run in English, which turned out to be dubbed into American, therefore making a complete nonsense of the whole plot (German family in East Germany). Once we set it to German with English subtitles it magically changed into a great story, based on fact.

The acting was wooden at times (apart from the smaller boy who was very natural) and the sets felt a bit stagey.

However, the story of the escape attempts was gripping and tension built up as the film progressed.

There were tears in our household by the end.

Recommended.

This is a great film with excellent performances by Bob Hoskins (Churchill), Michael Caine (Stalin) and John Lithgow (Roosevelt). It is taken from the TV series 'When Lions Roared'. The problem is that this DVD is only part of the TV series, and cuts out over an hour (the last hour!) of the story. It thus ends very abruptly. I think 'When Lions Roared' has been issued as a 2-disc set but this is not it, and CP do not appear to have it.

So it's a very unsatisfactory film to watch.