Hymn of the holocaust
THE PIANIST Cert. 15 Director: Roman Polanski
The subject of the Nazi atrocities against the Jews during WWII is always both heart-rending and sobering. In this film we are taken back to the Jewish sufferings in the Warsaw ghetto. The Polish-born director, Roman Polanski, himself survived the Krakow ghetto as a child, only to learn that his mother had died in a concentration camp.
The Pianist tells the true story of the Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who often broadcast on Polish radio before the war. He was one of only 20 Jews left alive in Warsaw when the Nazis withdrew in 1945. He is played by Adrien Brody who has recently received an Oscar for best actor for his performance.
As with Schindler's List the film does not spare us the horrific brutality of all that occurred. Szpilman's family are taken off to the gas chambers, but he is saved by a friend. The brutal suppression of both the Jewish uprising in the ghetto and later the Polish uprising in Warsaw, takes place around him, but he survives.
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