Behind the seemingly absurd story of the American black comedy "Rabbit Mocking Boy", released in 2020, director Taiga Viditti brought out the brutal history of the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II from the perspective of childlike innocence, and was nominated for six awards at the Oscars, including Best Film, and was recognized for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The same is true of "Stolen Childhood" this time, successfully diluting this sad past by the bravery of a girl, bringing a lot of warm positive energy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="42" > look at history from different perspectives</h1>
During the interwar period from 1918 to 1939, Germany, a defeated country in World War I, printed a large number of banknotes to cause domestic inflation in order to bear the huge reparations of the Treaty of Versailles.
Banks have collapsed, millions of people have lost their jobs, and they face many intractable social problems. Hitler's Nazi Party seized the opportunity, promising to revive the economy and reduce unemployment, and in the 1932 elections won the support of many voters, becoming the largest party in the Reichstag.
However, if it is only to hope to strengthen the national strength, the Nazis, as a strong organization with strong ideological overtones, in order to build Germany into a powerful country exclusive to the "German nation", also implemented a number of "ethnic cleansing" policies that deprived the country of the citizenship and rights of the Jews.
Stolen Childhood is set in February 1933, on the eve of Germany's Authorization Act, which allowed Hitler to establish a dictatorship, to describe in depth the major impact of the event on the Jews.
A Stolen Childhood is a German historical biographical film in which a Jewish family prepares to flee Berlin under Nazi threat, and 9-year-old Anna hesitates between a dog and a bunny doll before deciding to take the puppy.
In those fiery years, Anna's family went into exile in Various European countries, and although they were optimistic about life even though they were financially strapped, Anna never saw her beloved pink rabbit again.
Adapted from the autobiographical novel "The Fuehrer Stole the Pink Rabbit" by British writer Judith Kerr based on her childhood memories, the film "Stolen Childhood" features Anna, a 9-year-old Jewish girl living in Berlin.
Although Germany was facing an economic crisis at the time, her father, a critic and writer, was a representative of berlin's anti-Nazi resistance, and numerous newspapers, magazines and radio programs invited her to grow up in a family of wealthy and food and clothing, but these criticisms of Hitler also put Anna's family in crisis after he came to power.
Thanks to the internal information that the Nazi Party was about to liquidate dissidents after the election, Anna's father left Germany overnight in the name of suffering from a serious cold, and we can clearly feel that Berlin has become no longer safe in the film "Stolen Childhood", and neighbors often come to Anna to investigate her father's movements, so in order to avoid Nazi persecution, Anna also fled abroad with her mother and brother.
However, although the family managed to keep their lives safe, it also put them on the road of exile that had to be constantly relocated.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > different war stories</h1>
Although, like "Rabbit Mocking Boy", it is based on the child's perspective and illustrates the impact of Hitler's rise to power on the Jews of Europe, "Stolen Childhood" is a film based on children's literature.
It is clear that the choreographer constantly avoids mentioning the evil deeds of the Nazis in the film, and instead replaces it with a life-like plot of many family interactions, and through this journey, the protagonist Anna's state of mind is described in detail.
Perhaps on the surface, compared with the subsequent Persecution of European Jews by the Nazis during World War II, anna's family's escape from Early Germany in 1933 is not difficult at all, and it can even be said to be quite lucky, but for Anna, a 9-year-old girl in "Stolen Childhood", she still let her lose her original carefree childhood life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > exile</h1>
From leaving Berlin, where she grew up, and being forced to choose the one she left behind out of two of her beloved Muppets, to following her family to Zurich, Switzerland, Paris, France, and London, England.
In addition to facing the reluctance of parting, anna and her brother Michael, the protagonists of "Stolen Childhood", must constantly adapt to unfamiliar environments, learn the languages of various countries, and try to make local friends to find the pace of their lives in difficult situations.
Therefore, in the case of children feeling confused and contradictory, their parents can be said to play a very important role. "Stolen Childhood" describes many of the family's lives in exile.
Celebrating birthdays in hotels, talking to former housekeepers, going to school routines, dinner after school, and parent-child conversations at bedtime before bedtime, although they inevitably encountered many difficulties after being persecuted by the Nazis and living in exile, Anna's parents still did their best to try to make the two children happy.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > the theme of the plot</h1>
Among them, whether it is the father who takes his son to taste French roast snails when he is in distress, or the mother sells her precious earring jewelry to buy school bags for her brothers and sisters when she is facing financial difficulties at home, "Stolen Childhood" shows the family's more precious family warmth in the original desperate night through the efforts and sacrifices made by the parents in the film, as well as the understanding and understanding of the children.
As the film ends on a ship from Paris to London, the protagonist Anna says after a series of exiles, facing an unknown future that may never be able to return to her hometown: "Although our home will not always be in the same place, it seems good to be able to live with our family in many places that are a bit like home." 」
After Judith Kerr's family emigrated to England in 1935, her brother Michael, who majored in law, became Britain's first foreign-born High Court judge, and Judy became a children's illustrator, bringing out the entire film theme of "Stolen Childhood" with their bright future.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="41" > the connotation of the ending</h1>
In the past, many war history films about World War II and Nazi Germany will focus on the cruelty of the war, the impact on Europe as a whole, and the suffering and panic of the Jews, and even the funny and cute "Rabbit Mocking Boy" in the previous paragraph will inevitably feel regretful and heavy, but this time "Stolen Childhood" is not the case.
I can feel the full love and warmth from the strength of the family members at the end of the movie, and watch the courage of the protagonist Anna to face the challenge optimistically, I believe that the audience can feel quite moved.
Overall, although set in Hitler's reigning Germany, "Stolen Childhood" is different from the cold of similar works in the past, using the innocent eyes of a 10-year-old girl as a perspective to tell the process of being forced to grow up on the journey away from war and eventually finding hope in her own family, so that the innocence in her eyes and the film's emotional portrayal of family affection, friendship and other people give this heavy history an inspiring positive energy.
I think that's why Judith Kerr created the children's book "The Fuehrer Stole the Pink Rabbit."
We don't want our children to live in an era of chaos, so "Stolen Childhood" magnifies the precious and precious little light of warmth and goodness in this little girl's heart, and also reminds us with her luck and misfortune that only love can make the originally dark world face the dawn that can illuminate people.
Thank you for watching, paying attention to me, and learning more about it.