15/20
Told through the eyes of a strong-willed woman is the remarkable story of Irene Gut and the triumphs of the human spirit over a devastating tragedy as she risked her life to save a generation of Jews from the atrocities of the Holocaust. Although this Canadian film had been making several times more than a typical Canadian film upon release in Canadian theaters, for some reason distributor Elevation Pictures decided not to give the film any significant amount of the marketing budget. As a result, the film performed poorly at the box office and was pulled from most theaters by the end of its third week or so of release. (about 2 minutes in) The opening title card announces that the events take place in the east. The border of Poland. This area of Poland was invaded by the Soviet Union. However, the area is occupied by German forces… Irena Gut Opdyke: What does it matter who we are? What we do is who we are. BoumMusic by Charles Trenet Lyrics by Charles Trenet Performed by Charlie and his Orchestra Irene’s voice Aside from beating up the Nazis, I also like World War II movies that feature unsung heroes who managed to save small groups of Jews. Irena’s Oath features Irena Gut, a Polish woman pressed into service by the German occupiers in the town of Tarnopol (now Ternopol in Ukraine). While working for Major Rügemer, she is assigned to supervise the laundry and subsequently as housekeeper for his villa, which was expropriated from a Polish family. When he saw that all the people in the laundry were to be executed as part of Hitler’s plan, he planned to hide them in the very house where the Major now lives. If this wasn’t a true story, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. It was so poorly acted that I felt like I was watching a modern costume drama rather than a film that takes us back to the crazy days of Nazi madness. It becomes clear early on that Rügemer fancies Irena, but he catapults himself forward when he learns that there are Jews hiding in his house. The speed and transformation of the Polish lover from top to bottom was so fast that it just didn’t make sense in the narrative. Sophie Nélisse as Irena did a great job conveying the compassion, panic, fear, horror and courage needed to survive. After witnessing another disgraced „German” kill a child on the street, she was determined to follow through on her risky plan to save as many Jews as possible. I wanted to love this for the courage in the depths of despair, but it wasn’t entirely well done. I don’t know and I can’t say for sure, but I felt like it could have been done better. I’m glad it actually happened and people were able to live full lives. The credits were very sweet.