Yes, vile human beings orchestrated it, the worst crime in mankind's memory after every incident of slavery, and disbelievers of any form of deity refuse to accept whatever God's reason for allowing mankind to put his children through this. A Hasidic Jew exclaims his disbelief as thousands of Jews are put aboard the train to Auschwitz, "the Jewish bakery" one official calls it, and all you can do is sit there in disbelief as a Hitler lookalike plays with a globe (ala Charlie Chaplin) as they wait for the train to arrive.
Told through the surviving son of the title character (a remarkable lady played by Pauline Collins), torn from her family by her son's presence in London and her husband's arrest. Believing that everything will turn out well as long as you're a good person, Collins heads to what could change her views and really see human beings as they are at their worst. With the kindest eyes and a spirit of forgiving and tenderness, Collins is guaranteed to break your heart.
What is off about this film is the somber but dark humored mood. I can't believe that the writers are making light of the tragedy, but at times, it's so direct and abrupt in the Nazi glee at the impending slaughter of millions of Jews that I had to wonder what side the writers were on at times. Rape, drowning, torture of the disabled, human humiliation of the elderly are all presented directly with seemingly little emotion. This is less a story of one woman who tries through unending strength to make it through rather than just a document of a shared experience between strangers on a train facing an unbeatable enemy.
Told through the surviving son of the title character (a remarkable lady played by Pauline Collins), torn from her family by her son's presence in London and her husband's arrest. Believing that everything will turn out well as long as you're a good person, Collins heads to what could change her views and really see human beings as they are at their worst. With the kindest eyes and a spirit of forgiving and tenderness, Collins is guaranteed to break your heart.
What is off about this film is the somber but dark humored mood. I can't believe that the writers are making light of the tragedy, but at times, it's so direct and abrupt in the Nazi glee at the impending slaughter of millions of Jews that I had to wonder what side the writers were on at times. Rape, drowning, torture of the disabled, human humiliation of the elderly are all presented directly with seemingly little emotion. This is less a story of one woman who tries through unending strength to make it through rather than just a document of a shared experience between strangers on a train facing an unbeatable enemy.