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“Jewish brothers in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe escape into the Belarussian forests, where they join Russian resistance fighters and endeavor to build a village in order to protect themselves and about 1,000 Jewish non-combatants.”
I watched this movie last night and I have to say I liked it a lot. The movie tag line “Freedom begins with an act of defiance! ” says it all. It was the ones who fought back that survived.
The movie follows the three Bielski brothers as the flee into the Bellorussian forest to escape the Nazi’s who have murdered their parents. Other Jewish refugees join up with them and they build a makeshift camp in the forest and arm themselves against the Germans. After a disagreement, one of the brothers and a few of the fighters break off and join the Russian resistance.
The movie is based on a book about a real occurrence. It was fascinating, and a bit heartbreaking to watch the relatives of the Bielski brothers talk about them and what happened. People would come up to them years later on the street and thank them for saving their lives. In all, approximately 19,000+ people are alive today because of what they did.
Once scene was particularly poignant. Tuvia Bielski is meeting with the Jews in the ghetto about coming with him back into the forest. Their (leaders) answer was (paraphrasing) “If we wait long enough and survive, then we will have won.” Instead of taking up arms to defend themselves, they had decided to just try and wait it out. Many did decide to come with him back to the forest. They learned how to shoot and fight back, even the women, and even though many died in attacks by the Nazi’s, many more survived than if they’d done nothing at all.
The movie is not without it’s critics, but as a reminder of the value of resistance is concerned, I have no quarrel. And fictionalised or not, it is based on real events and real people who did the best they could. Were they perfect? No, but who I am to fault them?
