I saw this movie and had the chance to discuss it with Girard at the 2019 FIN Atlantic film festival while covering it for the radio where I work. I honestly did not expect much from this simple fact : the description made of the movie from anything I could read did everything except say what the movie was about. It said "beautiful saga across three decades and four countries" or "story of friendship, family, etc. etc." but no plot description. When this happens, it's usually because you have a weak plot.
The plot though, was not as cheap as the screenwriting. The plot is another ww2 holocaust drama (for some reason, we can't seem to ever make positive movies about jewish accomplishments, etc., only stories about the holocaust. This is an important topic, yes, though it has been treated in the multiple hundreds of films on the topic), with as an "original" twist, a musical background. This isn't bad, and makes up most of the scenes. It leads to the first and only interesting thing in the film - SPOILER - the use of song (the type in jewish liturgy) to memorize the names of people who disappeared during the Shoa. Though the music is beautiful, we aren't treated to any of the real "memory songs". we get a composition for the film score.
The shape of the story solidly bothered me. It's absurdly cheap - we've seen it all time and time again. Someone disappears, later it becomes a sort of "detective story" in order to find the person who went missing, etc. All you get is again "Protagonist goes to some place. Asks questions. Looks for person. Goes to next place, asks questions, etc.". Not only is it a cheap and very common way to structure a story nowadays, but the realism of it hangs by a thread.
Nonetheless, the actors are remarkable, aesthetically the film is extremely well done, musically it's very nice. You might be moved by some parts, but overall this film is nothing you're never seen before, and you might not remember it later on. Watch it on Netflix, where it's bound to end up.
The plot though, was not as cheap as the screenwriting. The plot is another ww2 holocaust drama (for some reason, we can't seem to ever make positive movies about jewish accomplishments, etc., only stories about the holocaust. This is an important topic, yes, though it has been treated in the multiple hundreds of films on the topic), with as an "original" twist, a musical background. This isn't bad, and makes up most of the scenes. It leads to the first and only interesting thing in the film - SPOILER - the use of song (the type in jewish liturgy) to memorize the names of people who disappeared during the Shoa. Though the music is beautiful, we aren't treated to any of the real "memory songs". we get a composition for the film score.
The shape of the story solidly bothered me. It's absurdly cheap - we've seen it all time and time again. Someone disappears, later it becomes a sort of "detective story" in order to find the person who went missing, etc. All you get is again "Protagonist goes to some place. Asks questions. Looks for person. Goes to next place, asks questions, etc.". Not only is it a cheap and very common way to structure a story nowadays, but the realism of it hangs by a thread.
Nonetheless, the actors are remarkable, aesthetically the film is extremely well done, musically it's very nice. You might be moved by some parts, but overall this film is nothing you're never seen before, and you might not remember it later on. Watch it on Netflix, where it's bound to end up.