enjulia

My review of The Pianist
By Julia

The story is set in Poland under the second world war. The Pianist Wladyslaw Spilzman was living in Warsaw, where he played the piano for the Warsaw radio. He lived in an apartment with his parents and his three siblings. They didn't have too much money and had to work hard to get by.
Wladyslaw seems to be a very calm person, he doesn't make a big thing of himself. He doesn't seem be the person that is always searching for attention. He seems to like it better to be watching, he always seems to observe things - places, persons and situations. 
The movie begins with a scene where Wladyslaw's mother runs into Wladyslaws bedroom shouting "The war has come to Warsaw!".
Wladyslaw's family was jewish, which put them into trouble when Warsaw got occupied by the germans in 1939. It began with prohibitions, Jews weren't let into certain stores, bars and restaurants. They were not allowed to walk on the sidewalks and the germans oppressed them and physichally abused them in public. Wladyslaw's father got a thick ear for walking on the sidewalk and when the rule that forbade jews to have assets Wladyslaw had to sell his piano. (Not for its proper value of course, since the buyer knew that he was dealing with a jew)
It didn't take long for the germans to come up with the idea of making Warsaw all free from jews. In the autumn of 1940 every jew got an order to move into a defined area before November. The Spilzman family was upset but decided to obey. What would have happened if they didn't?
In November the big move took place. All the jews in Warsaw was walking on the streets in the same direction, carrying heavy trunks containing their possessions. They were all heading for the part of Warsaw that should be their world for the next four years - the Warsaw Ghetto. From the crowd Wladyslaw saw an old friend, a singer he had worked with when he use to play the piano for the radio. She was worried - with reasons, maybe she knew that today could be the last time she saw her friend.
The apartment in the Ghetto was old, small and dusty. They were five adults in a far too small apartment. But it was the home of the Spilzman family for four years.
The Ghetto was a horrible place. Inside its walls of bricks there was a huge lack of food and medical care which resulted in starvation and poor health. When Wladyslaw walked on the street there were dying people in the street corners, dizzy, crying for help. Nobody helped them.
After four years in the Ghetto a german came with, what everyone thought, good news. Every jew in the Ghetto should be allowed to move out of the Ghetto to live in a work camp. They got hopeful but scared, but I guess that when you already have it as bad as you can, every possibility is a chance.
The Spilzman family had packed packed their most important belongings in trunks and when the day of the leave came every jew who lived in the Ghetto were collected at the railway station. The germans were everywhere, oppressing the people and filling them with fright. They even killed some people without any reasons.
One of Wladyslaw's old friends, who had joined the nazi party, saved Wladyslaw by pulling him away from the crowd. Wladyslaw was confused, but the friend said: "Run! I'm saving your life!" He ran. He ran into the Ghetto and found it in a mess. The streets were full of furniture and textiles, things from the apartments. The germans had emptied their old flats and thrown everything they had left on the streets. All their old belongings were broken, and Wladyslaw realised that his family was on a train taking them to their ruthless death.
He starts to cry.

This is the beginning of "The Pianist", a movie about a man and his fight to survive in a time and a world where all the odds were against him just because of his religious views. It's a mighty story about being strong when everything is torn apart. To keep going forward when all you want is everything to be as it used to.

I saw this film for the first time about eight months ago and it was... Strong. I had never known much about the persecution of jews, and suddenly everything seemed so real. It had really happened, it was a true story. How could people let it be that way? Why didn't anyone do something, and how could the germans be so cruel? Is it really possible for man to be that ruthless?
 There were many questions, and there still are. I think the purpose of this movie is to show us, the generations after, how it really was. How it still is in many parts of the world. And warn us, to open our eyes and remind us that there are sick people, sick ideas. The final point may be to give us strength to avoid the story's repeating in the future.
I really hope that people can take this warning and make a contribution to a better future.