19/27
Irena Gut Opdyke: What Does It Matter Who We Are?
Story
Through the eyes of a strong-willed woman comes the remarkable story of Irena Gut and the triumph of the human spirit over devastating tragedy as she risked her life to save a generation of Jews from the atrocities of the Holocaust. For some reason, the film had a much wider theatrical release in Canada than the typical Canadian film; its distributor, Elevation Pictures, decided not to give the film a significant 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 opening…
What We Do Is Who We Are
BoumMusic by Charles TrenetLyrics by Charles Trenet Featuring Charlie and His Orchestra. Irena’s PromiseIn addition to beating the tar out of the Nazis, I also like another kind of World War II film, which features unsung heroes who managed to save small groups of Jewish people. Irena’s Promise stars Irena Gutova, a Polish woman forced to serve in the city of Tarnopol (now Ternopol in Ukraine) by the occupying Germans.
If this weren’t a true story, I wouldn’t believe a word of it
While working for Major Rügemer, she is assigned to supervise the laundry and then as the housekeeper for his villa, confiscated from a Polish family. When she sees that all the people in the laundry are to be executed as part of Hitler’s plan, she plans to hide them in the same house that the major now occupies. It was so poorly acted that I felt like I was watching a modern costume movie instead of a film that takes us back in time to the crazy era of Nazi madness.
Sophie Nélisse as Irena did a great job of evoking compassion, panic, fear, horror, and courage all necessary for survival
It soon becomes clear that Rügemer has a thing for Irena, but she is catapulted forward when she discovers that Jews are hiding in his house. The speed and transformation of superior to inferior compared to the Polish lover was so fast that it simply didn’t make sense in the narrative. After witnessing a child murdered on the street by yet another nefarious “German,” she truly embarked on her risky plan to save as many Jews as possible.
The credits were really sweet
I wanted to love it for its bravery in the depths of despair, but it wasn’t entirely well done. I don’t know, I can’t even put my finger on it, but I felt like it could have been done better. I’m just glad it actually happened and people lived full lives.
