EUROPA EUROPA (DVD/WS-1.66/1990/GER-RUS-FR/ENG-FR-SP-SUB/WORLD FILMS/TRAI DVD

Europa, Europa
This drama was based on the true story of a young German Jew who survived the Holocaust by falling in with the Nazis. Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) is the son of a Jewish shoe salesman coming of age in Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler. In 1938, a group of Nazis attack Solomon's family home; his sister is killed, and 13-year-old Solomon flees to Poland. Solomon winds up in an orphanage operated by Stalinist forces; when German forces storm Poland, Solomon's fluent German allows him to join the Nazis as a translator, posing as Josef Peters, an ethnic German. In time, "Peters" is made a member of the elite Hitler Youth, but since Solomon is circumcised, he can be easily revealed as a Jew, and he lives in constant fear that his secret will be discovered. Solomon's close calls include an attempted seduction by Robert Kellerman (André Wilms), a homosexual officer, and his relationship with Leni (Julie Delpy), a beautiful but violently anti-Semitic woman who wants to bear his child for the glory of the master race. Europa, Europa (shown in Europe as Hitlerjunge Salomon) also features the real Solomon Perel, who appears briefly as himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast Marco Hofschneider as Young Solomon Perel Julie Delpy as Leni André Wilms as Robert Kellerman René Hofschneider as Isaac Perel Aschley Wanninger as Eric Piotr Kozlowski as David Perel Hanns Zischler as Captain von Lereneau Klaus Kowatsch as Soldier Schultz Delphine Forest as Inna Moisievna Jorg Schnass as Pfeiffer Nathalie Schmidt as Basia

Crew Sarah Thomsen - Casting Margot Capelier - Casting Marie-Christine Lafosse - Casting Wiesa Starska - Costume Designer Malgorzata Stefaniak - Costume Designer Krystyna Grochowicz - First Assistant Director Jacek Schoen - First Assistant Director Pawel Wierkowski - First Assistant Director Agnieszka Holland - Director Ewa Smal - Editor Isabelle Lorente - Editor Zbigniew Preisner - Composer (Music Score) Ewa Symko-Marczewska - Makeup Grazyna Kula - Makeup Allan Starski - Production Designer Jacek Petrycki - Cinematographer Jacek Zaleski - Cinematographer Marek Skladonowski - Production Manager Barbara Pec-Slesicka - Production Manager Margaret Menegoz - Producer Janusz Morgenstern - Producer Arthur Brauner - Producer Lew Rywin - Producer Hans-Dieter Schwarz - Sound Mixer Elisabeth Mondi - Sound/Sound Designer Malgorzata Jaworska - Sound Editor Jacek Jelinski - Stunts Zbigniew Modej - Stunts Agnieszka Holland - Screenwriter Paul Hengge - Screenwriter Jan Ossowski - First Assistant Camera Henryk Jedynak - First Assistant Camera Roman Taborski - Gaffer Leszek Szarota - Historical Consultant Michal Friedman - Historical Consultant Tadeusz Janowski - Properties Master Emil Kostecki - Properties Master Bogdan Piotrowski - Properties Master Kazimierz Stys - Properties Master Renata Pajchel - Still Photographer Christina Undritz - Supervising Producer Solomon Perel - Book Author

Europa, Europa
Films such as Judgment at Nuremberg have chronicled the crisis of conscience that afflicted ordinary Germans after World War II; Europa, Europa, however, examines that crisis as it was brewing, from the viewpoint of a man who embodied the nation's schisms in particularly dramatic fashion. Polish director Agnieszka Holland exhibits a lightness of touch that befits the film's fact-based premise. Solomon Perel's life was so extraordinary that it speaks for itself. In the establishing scenes of Perel's prewar youth, newcomer Marco Hofschneider embodies all the gawky charm of carefree boyhood. As the film charts his character's masquerade as first a good little Communist, then a brave Nazi war hero, it paints his struggles as merely the conflicted loyalties and unavoidable compromises of adolescence given terrible new significance by history. With few exceptions, wartime atrocities are depicted matter-of-factly, leaving the audience to make its own judgment about Perel and the dumb luck and quick thinking that allowed him to survive, even flourish. From André Wilms as the gay actor-turned-Nazi officer who nurtures young Perel to the superb Julie Delpy as the Aryan girl whose willfulness and pique are elevated to manifest destiny under Hitler's rule, the large international cast brings to life the varied personal stories that are sometimes missing from the history books. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
 

Agnieszka Holland: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Adapted Screenplay (nominated) Zbigniew Preisner: Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Best Music Score (winner)

British Academy of Film and Television, Best Foreign Language Film (nominated) Golden Globe, Best Foreign Language Film (winner) National Board of Review, Best Foreign Film (winner) New York Film Critics Circle, Best Foreign Film (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: Ger, Rus, French Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: cc Original theatrical trailer Original German/Russian: Mono French: Mono English, French, & Spanish-language subtitles DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1: Vistavision MPAA Rating: R DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 114 min Part of Series: MGM World Films   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Main Title/My Bris [4:35] 2. Kristallnacht [3:49] 3. Polish Now/A Son's Duty [8:12] 4. Soviet Patriot Orphan [4:46] 5. Religious Candy Wars [6:33] 6. The Right Papers [7:27] 7. Facing His Accuser [3:01] 8. Serving in the Holy War [4:31] 9. An Actor for Life [5:54] 10. The Last Kiss [3:27] 11. The Heroic Deserter [5:49] 12. Proud Hitler Youth [6:40] 13. How to Recognize a Jew [7:23] 14. Love and Foreskin [5:22] 15. Doctors and Dentists [9:24] 16. On the Ghetto Train [5:24] 17. A Baby for the Führer [4:55] 18. Young Leaders/A Miracle [4:02] 19. Things He Didn't Know [7:22] 20. Only a Jew/Credits [4:43]