Interesting film covering that period of WW2 after the German blitzkrieg through the UKRAINE and the survival of a jewish girl who steals her best christian friends identity papers and survives living as a home/farm hand. Striving to survive, working hard and becoming aware of the fragility of her employers marriage. Through all this she has to be looking over her shoulder, so as not to arise suspicions as to her true identity whilst also having to cope with the atrocities of the war. Part of WW2 which has not be well covered by the cinema which make this film if you are interested in the period one not to miss.
Set in the disputed border area between Poland and Ukraine during the German Occupation.It tells the story of a young Jewish girl and her brother who escape from a town the Germans are liquidating.The girl takes on the identity of a Christian friend and is taken in by a farmer in Western Ukraine to look after their children and work on the farm. .The atmosphere of the film is tense as the girl learns to take communion in the orthodox church.The family get on with their life through which there are sudden episodes of violence.Very fine production and acting.A somewhat disturbing film which highlighted the local effects of the German Occupation of Russia during WW2.At the end the Russians retook the area and the girl returned home.We were told at the end that it was a true story.The brother was betrayed and shot.The lady married one of the few remaining Jews in the town and lived in the USA where she died in 2018.A very fine film.
Given the contested history of the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and the persecution of the Jews, this brilliant film lets us see how a Jewish girl managed to evince help and protection from a family suffering its own contradictions under the hammer of Nazi oppression and partisan resistance.The primitive anti-Jewish prejudice in the people who protected her and their common suffering are shown without sentimentality, as is the humanity of an Orthodox priest, the barbarity of Nazi reprisals and her own steely determination to survive.