source: Spring 1941

The film is based on authentic material by Ida Fink, who lived through it all and wrote a book about it, and the film lives up to perfect realism and faithfulness to the horrible account of the destinies of just a few people out of the uncountable masses of victims in Poland during the war, both Jews and civilians. The story shows only the most brutal aspects of the Germans, there is not the slightest glimpse of any humanity in these cruel butchers, while we know there were exceptions. The acting is superb, there is no overacting in spite of some roles and occurrences inviting to exaggerations, but the restraint is perfect all the way, even as there are inevitable outbursts of passion and incidents. The circumstances of this film are very much reminding of Jerzy Kosinski's "The Painted Bird", as if you would expect him to appear as well as a fugitive in the Polish countryside. However, the atrocities are quite enough without him, and the inhuman horrors of the events are balanced by the eloquence of the composition, leading up to the magnificent concluding scenes, transporting the drama out into timelessness in a perfectly natural way. Everything is convincing and unfortunately more than convincing, bringing you into painfully close encounter with the very essence of the supreme inhumanity of war.

I cannot understand how the average score of this movie is so low if most of the reviews are excellent. This is an intimate, subdued approach to the horrors of antisemitism, which for me has caused as strong an impression as super productions like Schindler's List. I will now do a bit of research on the character if Ida Fink and jew persecution in Poland. It's also a heartbreaking love story. Totally worth watching although a couple of scenes are really painful to witness.

This is one of the best holocaust dramas I've ever seen, maybe the best. Superbly acted, plotted, directed, photographed. Engrossing, emotional. I loved the flashbacks and "flash forwards", if that's the word. Every character is believable, and you feel for every one. The last five minutes are truly excellent.

More than a bit disappointed this wasn't a very realistic war drama actors hammering out lines in English with odd stilted vaguely Slavonic accents thrown in. Then the laborious romance matters then seemed to draw a veil over what was left of the realism in the movie and I'm sorry but with the milk maid plunging visuals I didn't need a 'We are Slavic' soundtrack to imagine that fantastic erotically charged Polish trash-pop entry in Eurovision 2014. It nearly won. Anyway. Then the flash forwards elements make use of over simplistic visual references - yes, it's the same place, again... And is there enough prosthetics? A shortage?

This is a serious portrait of the suffering, pain and sacrifices of hideous Nazi occupation & the Jewish people. I like the story unveiled by surviving Madam Planck 30 years later... the movie switches between the occupation to her finally sharing w her daughter of that life and village. It is moving, only Emilia storyline too long, (time could have been spent on other aspects). We get the point early on that she is going to push too far, with tragic results to haunt her. Then the villager drunk cousin - too much of him. There was room to have one or two more characters in the story, versus overly drawn out storytelling like that. Well worth watching - an earnest movie.

Breezeydoesit nailed it. As a father and grandfather of girls, the pain of the parents would have been indescribable. I find it impossible in movies of this nature to go beyond the story. Picky critiques do not cut it. Anyone who does this has never had children. The relentless evil of the Nazi regime is palpable.

A very well acted emotional story illustrating the atrocities of the Germans in WWII. I found some of the scenes very disturbing though thought provoking as to what depths the human race can sink to. Films like this must be made to capture new generations who far too often are ignorant of history or have history glossed over to maintain current day international relations and sensitivities.

In 1971 Poland, older cello player Planck is greeted as a returning triumph with her daughter. In 1941 Poland, doctor Artur Planck (Joseph Fiennes), his wife Clara (Clare Higgins) and their two daughters are trying to escape the coming Nazis. One of the girls is killed. They find shelter at Emilia (Maria Pakulnis)'s farm house. She's the local grocer whose husband is lost in the fighting. While Clara is forced to stay in the attic, Emilia gets romantic with Artur and tells people that he's her cousin. This Holocaust story could have been made more intense. There is a slight tone problem. It strays too far into love triangle territories. Those parts should be treated with more matter-of-factness. Every hurt feeling and every hesitation adds an unwanted melodramatic feel to the movie. This should have been more tense.

I've seen many Holocaust and WWII films, and for me Spring 1941 is up there among the best of them. It shows how people would tolerate just about anything to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. In this case, a Jewish couple left their home in order to avoid Nazi capture. Along the way one of their young daughters is killed. The remaining child and the parents stay at the home of a local farmer who also happens to be in love with the husband in the couple, as he was her doctor. They enter into a relationship and the scorned wife wants out. Ultimately the husband chooses his family over the farmer, and they take their chances by leaving the farmer's home and joining the Jews being marched to god knows where. The story of the past is interspersed with the story of the wife thirty years later when she has become a famous cellist and returns to Poland to receive an award. I believe the alternating between 1941 and 1971 was done effectively. By the film's end it has evolved into a real tear jerker, presenting the overwhelming sadness that the characters have had to bear, from 1941 to the present. That's what came across most intensely for me: that no matter what the details were of any individual's or family's story, every one of them was tragic with an ensuing lifetime of sad memories. No matter how extensive the accomplishments of Holocaust survivors, and no matter how much time passes, the images of their perished loved ones and the heinous sadistic abuse they endured, never go away. For such an intense, emotional story, I think the acting was excellent and did it justice. I never felt, as at least one reviewer did, that the film descended into melodrama.