| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Leelee Sobieski | ... | ||
| Hank Azaria | ... | ||
| David Schwimmer | ... | ||
| Jon Voight | ... |
Major-General Jurgen Stroop
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| Donald Sutherland | ... | ||
| Stephen Moyer | ... |
Kazik Rotem
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| Sadie Frost | ... | ||
| Radha Mitchell | ... |
Mira Fruchner
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| Mili Avital | ... |
Deworah Baron
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| Eric Lively | ... |
Arie Wilner
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| Alexandra Holden | ... |
Frania Beatus
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| John Ales | ... |
Marek Edelman
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| Andy Nyman | ... |
Calel Wasser
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Nora Brickman | ... |
Clara Linder
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| Jesper Christensen | ... |
General Kruger
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Using radically refashioned archival footage of the Warsaw ghetto, this interview with Jon Avnet the director of Uprising talks about Marek Edelman who is an evocative memoir of his role in the rebellion that held back the Nazis for almost a month in 1943. The film begins with the growing list of prohibitions and regulations leading to the virtual imprisonment of about half-a-million Polish Jews in an old slum district of Warsaw with inadequate space and plumbing. An overhead tracking shot shows the number of people assembled in the first months of the relocation. The daily struggle against hunger and disease, especially among the dispossessed arrivals seen in their pitful rags, is aggravated by the German demands for "deportations to the east" that many begin to suspect are camouflaged mass murders. By the close of 1942, people living in the ghetto realize they are doomed, and the rudiments of resistance are planned by a handful of the young, including Edelman. Following some ... Written by Leonard Rubenstein
I always have very low expectations of made for TV movies as they tend to be poor in comparison to feature films. But this one actually impressed me. The focus of the film was not the entire holocaust, but it focused on the Warsaw ghetto uprising of the Jews (the previous reviewer might have saved themselves some trouble had they simply read that beforehand) so the writing and characters were focused and good and it was all based on true people and events. The sets were well-constructed. I had forgotten I was watching a TV movie. A good cast. Good acting. Much of the cast was unknown, most of them not even Jewish. Donald Sutherland and Cary Elwes gave outstanding performances as did John Voight. Definitely worth viewing. Many good extras on the DVD as well.