EUROPA EUROPA (1990)

A.K.A.: Hitlerjunge Salomon

Country: Germany

Genre(s): Adventure / Drama / War

Director: Agnieszka Holland

Cast: Marco Hofschneider / Julie Delpy / Andre Wilms

Plot

The true story of Solomon Perel, a German Jew whose life was turned upside down by the events of World War II, forcing him to adopt new identities, even joining the Hitler Youth and fighting alongside the Nazis, to survive.

What I Liked

Is it better to die for a cause or, in the face of death, abandon the cause in order to live?  Clearly, for many it would depend on the cause.  In Solomon Perel’s case, neither his Jewish heritage, nor German nationalism, nor Communist education were worth sacrificing his life.  Thus “Europa Europa,” the film that dramatizes Perel’s dangerous adventures during the second World War, becomes a morally conflicting experience.  While one viewer might walk away from the film seeing Perel as a heroic survivor, another might see him as an unscrupulous coward.

It is precisely this dichotomy, constant throughout the film, that makes “Europa Europa” so poignant.  Perel certainly behaves cowardly on a number of occasions, switching loyalties and identities any time he finds himself in danger.  He flees battle on more than one occasion and betrays those who would help him in order to save himself.  Yet, Perel’s boyhood might offer him a moral pass, at least in the eyes of some viewers.  At an age when most boys are preoccupied with the awkwardness of adolescence and relationships with girls, Perel, through no fault of his own, is caught up in a firestorm of fanaticism and bloodshed.  Looking at the war from Perel’s perspective, it’s easy to see why he would view everything happening around him as incomprehensible insanity.  Adherents to the various parties involved in the war behave irrationally, screaming and ranting, killing and destroying in the name of ideals and belief systems that, so far as a lone teenage boy can see, serve no purpose but to set people and nations against one another.

Perel’s story is filled with so many near-death experiences and coincidental escapes that the apparently true story is difficult to believe; doubtless the filmmakers took some liberties for dramatic effect and to keep the story moving along.  But what is quite believable are the characters involved in Perel’s journey.  Even peripheral characters are wonderfully developed and capably acted, making the plot as much about the fascinating people Perel meets along the way as it is about the events he survives.  With a few exceptions, the supporting characters are all fanatics of one kind or another, yet they also possess interesting personalities beyond their fanaticism, making it easy to see how Perel could befriend some of them, even a few Nazis.

What I Disliked

As I mentioned above, the frequency and ease with which Perel escapes so many near-death experiences casts doubt onto the authenticity of his story, at least for this viewer.  Too often I found myself wondering if anyone else could verify Perel’s story, or if the filmmakers just took him at his word.  Regardless, these unbelievable moments of survival weaken the film, as they just seem too convenient to be part of the reality of wartorn Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.

Marco Hofschneider’s performance as Perel is another aspect I found troubling.  He does bring a certain adolescent awkwardness and naturally goofy charm to the character, but I never really saw the character develop.  He pretty much spends the entire film with a perplexed look on his face, appropriate for the moments when the chaos of war is shoving him from one danger toward another.  However, at times I felt like Hofschneider could affect no other emotion; perhaps he himself was perplexed on how to actually act in some of the scenes that demanded a little more emotional variety.  More disappointing, the film covers maybe seven or so years and yet Hofschneider’s Perel never seems any older, still clumsy and boyish.  If this was supposed to be a coming of age film, as the story and dialogue would suggest, Hofschneider’s performance made sure that aspect of the film failed.

Most Memorable Scene

Circumcision is a recurring theme throughout “Europa Europa,” for reasons that should be obvious in a film about a young Jew hiding amongst Nazis.  For years Perel hides the physical evidence of his ethnicity from his peers, but it is romantic and sexual desire that eventually push him to an extreme measure that had me cringing through multiple scenes.  When we finally do see just exactly what Perel has done to himself, the result is not only physical disgust but pity for the boy who, after years of hiding, is doing this in order to finally achieve some kind of intimacy with another human being.

My Rating: 4 out of 5