Ivan & Abraham

An enjoyable, somewhat sombre film about two boys growing up in pre-WWII Poland. Ivan is Catholic and works as an apprentice for a rich Jewish landowner. Ivan is good friends with Abraham, the affluent landowner's grandson. The old man then instructs Abraham not be friends with Ivan as the latter is a 'goy'. The two boys decide to run away. Interesting back-drop: a bucolic landscape where the poor peasants, mostly Catholic, work for the rich and rather selfish landowner. An undercurrent of mutual dislike runs through the community; the anti-Semitic workers, the Jews viewing themselves as better as the rest… It all an allegory of problems to rise in Poland a few years later. Using black and white as medium for a 1993 film? It works surprisingly well in this case. The great music score and good acting helped to make this an enjoyable cinematic experience.