Written And Directed by Lior Gellar
Solomon (to Michael): "On the way out tomorrow, we cut through the truck and we don't stop running."
Sometimes you watch a film that's really good, clearly earmarked as a potential award darling but for some reason, it feels like it might be left out in the cold. It probably didn't help that a certain movie twice the length with star power and a similar theme might have come out months ago.
Anyways, this movie itself focused on a very specific incident during the Holocaust with the focus on two prisoners - Solomon Wiener (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Michael Podchlebnik (Jeremy Nuemark Jones). Their story would be a crucial part in one of the darkest moments in history.
For the first half of the movie along several other men, they're forced to dig graves for the Jews that had been gassed by the Nazis, have to endure horrible working, living and eating conditions. Not to mention being used for target practice and forced to take part in a horrible "dance" to lighten the mood by a rather sadistic leader (David Kross).
When two of their fellow prisoners are killed within minutes of each other, both Solomon and Michael decide to cut their way out of a transport and escape. They intend to head to Grabow in order to seek out sanctuary and a Rabbi (Anton Lesser) with the intention of getting the world to be aware of what they've endured.
The escape scenes are intense with the pair having to steal a motorbike and get some railman coats in order to get to the Rabbi in question. By the time they do, it took Solomon breaking down before the Rabbi was truly convinced of the horror that both him and Michael had been subjected to.
The last few minutes are brutal. Yes, both Solomon and Michael's testimonies ended up making the BBC broadcast and kicked off the investigation but while Michael was able to go to a trial and eventually start a new life, the opposite happened to Solomon. His ending isn't graphically depicted but it's a brutal one that sadly did happen in real life, along with the suffering of many others.
- Michael lost his wife Clara and two children on screen while Solomon lost his parents and four sisters offscreen and at the start of his capture. Michael also remarried and had other children.
- There's some nice performances from Michael Fox, Charlie MacGechan and Michael Epp to name a few.
- This got a limited theatrical release and will be heading to Apple TV+ this month.
- Chronology: January 1942 in the Chełmno death camp. Solomon died in April 1942 in the Belzec death camp. We saw Michael's testimony in 1962 and footage of him in real life from 1979.
Given it's subject matter, The World Will Tremble doesn't make for light viewing. Some of the horror was implied, a lot of it was visceral in it's depiction and the lead performances from both Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Jeremy Nuemark Jones are impressive.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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