In Israel, a school trip to Poland was a rite of passage for many high-schoolers, intended to give them a feeling for what the Jewish people went through under the Nazis. Unfortunately, kids old enough for the trip are also just at the age when they'd rather be carousing-- and carouse they will, although the Holocaust does shock and move them. The movie conveys the dual experience; indeed, it seems to be pulled in both directions itself.
There's another pull at work too, by the way. The Polish establishment these days is insistent that Poles had no part in the Holocaust, and since this movie was made with Polish cooperation, it includes no implication of Polish guilt or Polish anti-Semitism. It does show the kids being warned not to reveal that they're Jewish or Israeli, but when they ignore the warning, they find the Poles friendly without exception.
The kids amount to a big busload, and although the movie concentrates on four of them who have a complex relationship with one another, even that small cast of major characters isn't always easy to follow in terms of their motivations and mutual attitudes.
Two of Israel's best adult actors. Ezra Dagan and Alma Dishi, are on hand in supporting roles and add a little gravitas. Interestingly, both their characters fail to carry out their work with the kids to their own satisfaction; their failure goes well with the realization that the whole project of passing a proper awareness of the Holocaust down from generation to generation is on the one hand necessary but on the other hand not perfectly achievable.
0 out of 0 found this helpful