Each episode of The Next Reel Film Podcast is a part of a series or collection of films brought together by time, idea, or contributor. Looking to build a great watchlist? You can’t go wrong with starting on a Next Reel Series.
Is this an activist film? How does this film fit in director Agnieszka Holland’s oeuvre? Does magical realism work in a crime drama? Tune in to this week’s show to get answers to these questions and more.
For Agnieszka Holland’s third and final (she says) film about the Holocaust, she landed on a unique story that has shades of others before and after detailing gentiles saving Jews, but that’s set in a very unique location – the sewers below the city.
When Agnieszka Holland was given early pages from Solomon Perel’s unfinished memoirs about surviving the Holocaust, she was immediately taken by it. The fact that it was about a young Jewish boy who stayed alive by hiding out as one of the Hitler Youth among other things was fascinating to her, but it was his lack of embellishing and complete honesty that drew her in.