1941
1941 DVD (PointBlank)
Beware, heavy heavy drama waits for you here. 1941 pulls no punches and dissects a situation possibly un-trod in the World War 2 genre of the Holocaust. Yeah, exactly! Serious subject matter, serious stuff, not the 1941 Speilberg clunker, this is something new. Clara Planck a successful Cellist living in the 1970s revisits where she hid during the war and through flashback and scene cutting we learn a little about the life she led and the extent to which her family sacrificed things to survive. We watch through her eyes as the Planck family – an affluent Polish Jewish family – are forced to run by the impending invasion by the Nazis and with little choice the small family take a chance on a neighbour Emilia and plead with her to hide in her attic space. Clara Planck – played by Clare Higgins – has to hide in the attic space as her Jewish appearance marks her out, but Artur Planck – played by Joseph Fiennes- is able to pass as a non-Jew and Emilia happily welcomes a man about the house as her possibly dead husband has yet to return from the war. With his wife and girl hidden upstairs Artur helps out as much as he can, splitting his time between Emilia in an effort to repay her for her generosity and his trapped wife who is unable to venture out of the attic lest she should be seen. Then the unthinkable happens and Emilia falls in love with Artur. Reliant on Emilia’s discretion Artur sees no alternative but to try and appease both women, to split his love and to maintain normality as best he can but to what extreme and at what cost? This aching love triangle story is an interesting aspect uncovered by films and plays as with such a bleak time in history you’d think surely nobody could have had time for love, but this little story leaves no stone un-turned and the tension and lure of the forbidden is painful to watch. With such a small cast and location it does feel very play-like but the drama that unfolds wipes these thoughts from your mind and with what can only be a devastating conclusion to this tangle of love and anger it does leave you feeling cold and depressed. Then again, when does War ever have a happy conclusion? Alex
