Spring 1941 (2008)

Successful doctor Artur Planck, his wife Clara and their two daughters are seeking shelter from the Nazis storming Poland. They find a safe house in the farm of Emilia, their local grocer ... See full summary »

Director:

Uri Barbash

Writer:

Motti Lerner (screenplay)

Stars:

Katarzyna Al Abbas, Miroslaw Baka, Stanislaw Brejdygant

Cast

Credited cast:
Katarzyna Al Abbas	...	Lisa Planck
Miroslaw Baka	...	Woytek
Stanislaw Brejdygant
Adrianna Dzikowska	...	Zydówka
Joseph Fiennes	...	Artur Planck
Kelly Harrison	...	Young Emilia
Clare Higgins	...	Clara Planck
Ewa Kurylo	...	Agata
Marysia Lewandowska	...	Ewa Planck
Neve McIntosh	...	Young Clara Planck
Maria Pakulnis	...	Emilia
Lukasz Simlat	...	Vladek

Storyline

Successful doctor Artur Planck, his wife Clara and their two daughters are seeking shelter from the Nazis storming Poland. They find a safe house in the farm of Emilia, their local grocer who is all alone after her husband fought for his country and never returned. Amidst the horrors of the war that surrounds them, an impossible love triangle erupts as Emelia uncontrollably falls in love with Artur. Such a fragile arrangement is sustained by love - or is it just the will to survive? The answer to that question may not even be made known to those who make it out alive.

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Plot Keywords:

love triangle | season in title | world war two | year in title

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Taglines:

Is it love... or the will to survive?

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing violent content and brief sexuality

Details

Country:

Israel Poland

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 June 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anoixi 1941

Filming Locations:

Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland

Box Office

Budget:

$2,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Praxis Films, Opus Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 120 min (Camerimage Film Fest)

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Powerful Moments That Are Lost In An Atmosphere Of Melodrama

There are some very powerful and very emotionally moving moments in this movie. Certainly the deaths of Artur and Clara's two young daughters after they're shot by German soldiers are horrifying, Clare Higgins was riveting as she described Artur's final fate, and the concert at the end of the movie as she played the cello and saw in the audience the faces from her past certainly made the point that survivors of the Holocaust must be haunted by their memories and must find it difficult to move on. But on the whole this movie disappoints. Those powerful moments are somewhat scattered and so don't really hold this together or raise it to a higher level.

Instead, this movie came across to me as rather muddled. It shifts back and forth repeatedly from 1971, as Clara revisits some of the places from her past, to 1941, as we're given the story of what happened to her family. The shifts are somewhat abrupt. They didn't flow very well; they weren't smooth. I also thought that the movie had an unfortunate air of melodrama to it as it traces the relationship between Artur and Emilia - the young woman in whose farmhouse the Plancks hide, and who falls in love with Artur and begins a somewhat strained relationship with him. I'm not denying that such things could have happened, but it really didn't seem to be the plot point around which a movie of this type should revolve.

As an addition to the "Holocaust" collection of films, I have to say that this is not one of the stronger ones. (3/10)