Trivia
The film was shot in a remote, wooded area in Lithuania, about a hundred miles away from the real location of the Bielski brothers camp.
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The German tank which appears near the end of the film is a replica of a Panzer III which was created by modifying a Swiss Panzer 61 tank. It was one of two such vehicles previously used in Enemy at the Gates.
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Extras were brought in and asked to strip naked for the scene where Aron stumbles upon the mass grave at the beginning of the movie.
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Some of the internal walls of the living museum's had to be painted with a matt-gloss covering to protect the walls from damage from fake blood.
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The pistol Daniel Craig has in this film is a real Russian made pistol and dates back to World War One, which was found in an armory in England.
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The village in the opening sequence is actually a living-museum in Lithuania created by the Russians.
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The film was kick-started some year's earlier when Edward Zwick was given Zus Bielski's (1912 - 1995) obituary to read from the 'The New York Times'.
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The object the Bielskis take from their house is a mezuzah, a piece of parchment (often contained in a decorative case). A mezuzah is affixed to the door-frame of Jewish homes to fulfill the mitzvah (Biblical commandment) to inscribe the words of the Shema "on the door-posts of your house". The parchment is inscribed with specified Hebrew verses from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21). These verses comprise the Jewish prayer "Shema Yisrael", beginning with the phrase: "Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One."
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At the very beginning of the movie (around 40 seconds in), after the "Germany occupies Belarussia" information, there is a shot of a column vehicles entering the bridge. This is an excerpt from the Nazi war film chronicles ("UfA-Tonwoche") from September 1939. It shows Adolf Hitler's visit to the conquered Polish city of Gdynia, Poland's pre-WWII biggest military and merchant harbor. Specifically, it is the moment when Hitler's convertible car crosses overpass on the way to the harbor part of the city.
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