Europa Europa
| Europa Europa | |
|---|---|
| File:EuropaEuropa.png Europa Europa DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Agnieszka Holland |
| Written by | Agnieszka Holland Paul Hengge (additional material) |
| Produced by | Artur Brauner Margaret Ménégoz |
| Starring | Solomon Perel Marco Hofschneider Julie Delpy |
Release dates |  14 November 1990 28 June 1991 28 June 1991 (limited) 7 February 1992 16 April 1992 |
Running time | 112 min. |
| Languages | German Russian Polish Hebrew |
Europa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, which means Hitler Youth Salomon. It is based on the 1989 autobiography by Solomon Perel, a Jew who escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an Aryan. The film stars Marco Hofschneider and Julie Delpy, along with the real-life Perel as himself. The film is an international co-production between companies in Germany, France and Poland.
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.
Plot
Solek (a nickname for Solomon Perel, who is also called Solly) and his family live in Germany. On the eve of Solek's bar mitzvah, Kristallnacht occurs. His sister is killed and he and his parents and two brothers David and Isaak go to Lodz, Poland, thinking that it will be safer. When the Germans attack Poland during the September Campaign, Solek and his brother are sent East to the areas occupied by Soviet Union. The brothers are separated, and Solek is placed in a Soviet orphanage in Grodno.
Solek lives in the orphanage for two years, where he rises to become a Komsomol. When the Germans attack the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, they flee the orphanage and Solek is separated from the others. He is picked up by Germans, convinces them he is a member of a German-speaking minority outside Germany and is able to make himself useful as a translator with his knowledge of German and Russian. For instance he identifies Stalin's son, Yakov Dzhugashvili who was captured at the same time by the Germans. He pretends to be a German named Josef "Jupp" Peters, and says that his parents came from Latvia and he grew up in a German community in Poland. A fellow soldier, a homosexual actor named Robert, finds out the truth but promises not to tell anyone. The two become friends. After Robert and two other friends are killed in combat, Solek attempts to desert to the Soviets. However, as he is attempting to surrender, a company of Soviets surrenders to him and he is celebrated as a German war hero. This allows him to leave the front and go to a Hitler Youth school after his captain, a nobleman from Pomerania, offers to adopt him. On the train, after learning he shared a birthday with Hitler, the woman escorting him begins making physical and sexual advances at Solek. Finally, after a ticket check, they begin having sex, with the woman moaning and yelling "Mein Führer!!"
At the school his face is measured for racial purity with calipers, and is passed as Aryan, although he is in fact Jewish. On one occasion a doctor visits the school to perform a health examination, and when Solek learns that he would have to expose his genitals, he pretends to have a toothache in order to get out of the examination, and thus avoid revealing the secret of his identity. Solek falls in love with a German girl Leni, a fervent Nazi who lost her father in the war. But he must accept that their love has no future as he is circumcised and thus can't become intimate with Leni without revealing the secret of his identity. They fight after Solek protests against a particularly antisemitic remark by Leni, who calls him a Schlappschwanz (limp-dick). After several months without seeing her, he visits her mother, a decent lady who has no love for the Nazis, who tells him she is pregnant and intends to "give the child to the Führer". He realises that, since the two of them were not intimate, the father of the child must be his best friend Gerd, an Aryan, also in love with Leni, since she wanted the baby to be racially pure. When Leni's mother realises that he is not who he claims to be, he breaks down and confesses that he is a Jew; she promises not to betray him and Leni never finds out. Solek and Gerd fight.
Solek is called to a police station to clear up an issue with his papers. He produces everything except the Certificate of Racial Purity, which he says is in Grodno; the commander says he will send for it at once to stop it falling into Russian hands should the city be taken. As Solek leaves the building, it is bombed; Gerd, who was waiting for him outside, is killed by falling rubble.
The Hitler Youth are sent to the front, to defend Berlin. There he manages to surrender to the Red Army, with whom he can speak Russian. His captors refuse to believe that he was an Jew not a German — "If you're a Jew, why don't you look like this? Look!" as the soldier forces Solek to look at photos at murdered Jews from the death camps they had just liberated. They are about to have him shot by an elderly Communist political prisoner (note the red triangle on the shooter's camp uniform). Solek's brother, Isaak, who has just been released from a concentration camp identifies Solek and saves him from being shot. He is released shortly after and emigrates to the British Mandate of Palestine (the future State of Israel), where he proudly embraces his Jewish heritage.
Awards
The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Academy Award: Best Writing Adapted Screenplay.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Marco Hofschneider | Young Solomon Perel |
| Julie Delpy | Leni |
| René Hofschneider | Isaak |
| Piotr Kozlowski | David |
| André Wilms | Soldier Robert Kellerman |
| Ashley Wanninger | Gerd |
| Halina Labonarska | Leni's Mom |
| Klaus Abramowsky | Solomon's Dad |
| Michèle Gleizer | Solomon's Mom |
| Marta Sandrowicz | Bertha |
| Nathalie Schmidt | Basia |
| Delphine Forest | Inna |
| Martin Maria Blau | Ulmayer |
| Andrzej Mastalerz | Zenek |
| Solomon Perel | Himself |
External links
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