User Reviews

Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland (writer and director) put together an outstanding film based on a true story about a Jewish boy who pretended to be Russian and German to avoid capture before embracing his Jewishness at the moment his life was about to end.

Marco Hofschneider in his first film was absolutely amazing and you could feel the constant tension that he suffered in trying to hide. To actually get into the Hitler Youth Academy and fall in love with a pure German girl (Julie Delpy) made his predicament all the more exciting.

It was also funny seeing him used as an example of an excellent Aryan by the supposedly "scientific" teacher at the school.

This is one for your collection.

"Europa Europa" is a German/French/Polish co-production from over 25 years ago and here in Germany it is more known under the title "Hitlerjunge Salomon". The movie is based on the book Solomon Perel who tells his autobiographic story of how he survived in 1940's Nazi Germany. The lead actor is Marco Hofschneider and, even if he was very young back then, he never managed to star in a more known film than this one. It was nominated for a BAFTA, won a Golden Globe and was nominated in the Screenplay category at the Academy Awards. This latter fact already shows that they very much loved this movie and I have no doubts that it would have won the Oscar if Germany had decided to submit it. I saw the reason that this film was not German enough to represent the country, but then I wonder why they submitted nothing at all. Of course, it was a time of change 25 years ago in Germany, but still.. Very odd.

The writer and director here is Agnieszka Holland, one of the most influential female directors in the last 30 years when it comes to world cinema. Other films by her managed Oscar nominations as well. I personally believe that this film here is a good watch especially for younger audiences. The violence is not too graphic and the young main character will possibly get this target group especially interested in the film. At times, it almost had a comedic touch looking at the ways how Germans were so proud of him not knowing he was their worst enemy. I am talking about the scene for example when the teacher calls him to stand up and he explains why Solomon is an Aryan despite his not really German looks. The boy was also extremely lucky that (especially in the first half of the film) basically everybody who found out about his real origin got killed for whatever reason. The good thing about all this is that it keeps the material a lot lighter and makes it not as heavy a watch as it could have been. I am not sure if it hurts the film's significance though. The emotional and political gravity is still existent during the majority of the film.

Today Solomon Perel is 90 years old and still alive. I genuinely wonder how close this film (or his book) is to reality and if there are sequences that may not have been 100% accurate. We will never know. But we don't have to. It is really easy to appreciate these almost 2 hours for what they are: a quality movie about World War II. Interestingly enough, the only somewhat famous cast member 25 years later is Julie Delpy who portrays the typical young German woman who is in full admiration of the Fuehrer and ready to give him her child. A strong performance and her talent clearly shows. Of course, it is not on par with Hofschneider due to the mere quantity of scenes his character is in, but she is still very memorable. And very attractive. I recommend "Europa Europa". A must-see for everybody with an interest in films about World War II that do not focus primarily on battle action. Thumbs up. Holland did a pretty convincing job here.

Europa Europa AKA Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon" is a very interesting movie. The film should not be confused with the 1991 Lars von Trier film Europa, which was initially released as Zentropa in the United States to avoid such a confusion. If you do find yourself as a viewer, be glad that you don't live in a world like this, anymore. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, the movie is loosely based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel. He's play in the film by Marco Hofschneider. Solomon Perel is a German Jewish boy who is trying to escape the Holocaust by masquerading not only as a non-Jew, but as an elite "Aryan" German in Nazi Germany's Poland and a 'communist' student in Soviet Union's Poland. Without spoiling too much, there is a lot of disturbing things in this film that might make this movie hard to watch. This film does indeed take massive liberties on this remarkable man's life and who probably is a man of great integrity. I didn't like how much Solomon in the film has such negative characteristic throughout the film. Unfortunately this film bio-pic loses its own integrity by using far too much artistic license. The symbolism in this movie are really interesting. The title, Europa, Europa stands for the duo of Europe's political beliefs at the time and trying to fit in. Olivier, Olivier, Holland's next film deals with a similar plot. For the most part in this film, Solomon's circumcised penis functions as the film's chief dramatic device in which the plot is driven. Since he was circumcised at a young age, Solomon is going through a degrees of anxiety that is common with young men: feeling of loss of control over one's life. It is the one thing he can't change about himself. No matter how hard he tries to change his identity, his circumcision is the one thing that can expose "Jupp" as a Jew. For example, a romance with a German girl, Leni (Julie Delpy), who wants to conceive a child for the Fuhrer, proves dismal; because he can't consummate the relationship due to that fact. You see him, break down due to this. This adaptability is conveyed effectively by Marco Hofschneider in a strong example of a great performance from him. Still, I felt the true psychological depths of the character were nearly unexplored. Nudity plays a big part of this movie as he always cannot let anyone see him bathing. You would think, you wouldn't see nude as much due to this reason, but the movie has way too many nude scenes with him. While, the graphic nudity didn't hurt the movie, too much. It was indeed, distracting, as there were tons of scenes that he didn't need to nude in. None of them were use as sex appeal, but one scene was bit disturbing. Due warning, Solek has a scene where string and rubber bands in various painful ways to simulate a foreskin. It's really hard to watch. The violence was also bit graphic, but it really show you, how brutal, it was to live at that time. Add to it, was the graphic stock footage of the war. The stock footage was bit overused in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, there were some lighter side of this mostly gloomy movie. Much of the humor in the film, come with the fact that the Nazis officers have no clue that he is a Jew. It becomes really funny, when one of them quote that 'Jupp' looks like a young Adolf Hitler. Another funny moment is when a Nazi "expert" in "racial science' came to the school to teach how to detect Jews and use 'Jup' as a demonstration on how pure Aryan stock, he was. After all, where else would you see a feuding Joseph Stalin and a Jewish Hitler dancing together? I do find the movie use Deus ex machine plot line way too much in this film. The movies has a lot of great scenes. The whole painted-over windows of trolley crossing the off-limits Lodz Ghetto was just so surreal. I wish the movie focus a little more on life in Soviet Union, how hard was it for Solomon to lecture young Communists about the non-existence of God, when he was practicing Jew. The movie moves in a really too quick pace. The music adds to the dramatic tension, but is somewhat forgotten. Since the film was made from Europeans. It's hard to find a movie copy has English subtitles. While, the movie is now in DVD, you wouldn't find a lot of English dubbing version. In my opinion, it's better off to find the English subtitles, because you would miss the fact that the actor that plays Solomon speaks both great Russian, English and German in this. Overall: Europa, Europa is a gripping tale of one man survivable during World War 2 and the Holocaust. It might seek a bit lacking verisimilitude at times, but it's still watchable.

I saw this film once on Channel 4 about twenty years ago . I couldn't remember its title but vividly remember many things about it . The story of a young Jewish boy Solek whose were victims of Nazi persecution in Germany and where they fled to Poland only to themselves at war in a country divided up by both the Nazis and the Soviets . Solek finds himself in a Soviet orphanage then when he finds the Nazis waging an undeclared war of extermination against the Soviet Union realises he must masquerade as a Nazi in order to survive . As I said it's a memorable due to the twisting , turning nature of the narrative that leaves you on the edge of your seat but after seeing it again for a second time I'm afraid I do have reservations as to the greatness of it . It's supposedly a true story and like all films " based on a true story " that's much of the selling point . I can't be diplomatic in my cynicism so I'll come out and say it - I doubt if there's much , if any , truth in this story

One thing all screen writing gurus agree on is that you're allowed to get away with one massive coincidence in your screenplay and the sooner you introduce your coincidence the better . For the first third there's little if any coincidence to Solek's plight . Things then start unravelling when Solek gets captured by the Nazis along with Joef Stalin's son . Hmmm of all the hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners captured in the early days of Operation Barbarossa this small group of prisoners include the protagonist and Stalin's son . Not impossible just unlikely . Just as unlikely is Solek being befriended by a German who notices Solek is circumcised but decides not to tell anyone because this German soldier is gay , so the two of them become friends until the gay German is killed . Traumatised by Solek runs off to surrender to the Soviets and as he does so a misunderstanding along with a German counter-attack leads to Solek becoming a hero . The rest of the continues in this way where alarm bells as to the credibility of this story will ring out and deafen you at the climax where Solek is captured and led to a recently liberated death camp where he's about to be executed only to have his life saved by a relative who miraculously survived the holocaust

I'm sorry but because of the subject matter seems to have conscripted a large number of reviews to praise this film as some sort of holy artifact that's beyond any type of criticism . David Mamet once said " You have no reason to disbelief a film unless you know otherwise " and because I wasn't at the events Solomon " Solek " Perel chronicles I can't disprove them either . Regardless of this many of the events are too fantastic to believe . It's also a bit convenient that things happen and characters are introduced and then killed off in order to Solek's background and Jewish roots a secret . Surely if these events were true Solomen Perel would be much more famous ? I mean the fact that the Soviets took a captured German prisoner to the nearest death camp where they were going to execute him only to find his brother was an inmate at a camp deserves to be better known does it not ?

In summary EUROPA EUROPA is a well made film and one that I've remembered for twenty years . Unfortunately the first time I saw it I had no idea that it was based upon a supposed true story and since seeing it for a second time my reservations are that it's a little bit too poetic and metaphorical not to mention too remarkable and convenient in its dramatic impact to be a true story

Update - After looking up Solomon Perel on Wikipedia I'm unhappy to report that this film does indeed take massive liberties on this remarkable man's life and who probably is a man of great integrity . Unfortunately this film bio-pic loses its own integrity by using far too much artistic license

I think I'm with a number of other reviewers here in doubting the veracity of this supposedly true story.

All the way through it, I found myself thinking "that could happen - yeah right!!" and I was frankly extremely surprised at the end to discover that this movie is supposedly based on Solomon Perel's real life adventures during WWII. And I say adventures I think advisedly because of the actual unlikelihood that what is portrayed on screen had much at all to do with the reality of his situation at that time.

I wanted to like "Europa Europa" as much as I liked "Olivier Olivier" and "The Secret Garden The Secret Garden" and more recently "In Darkness In Darkness" but I'm afraid that the improbably of the many situations portrayed here just detracted greatly from the experience for me.

It also needs to be said I think that the apparently small budget spent on production of this movie (small compared to Hollywood admittedly) showed at times with sometimes less than convincing battle scenes in particular.

It's not a bad movie by any means; just disappointing. In closing this review, I will say that I watched the DVD for the first time just last night, noticing as I opened the cellophane wrapper that I have had it in my collection for a very very long time, probably 20 years. Regrettably, for the DVD at least, it's not a movie I'll be watching again any time soon.

JMV