26 Sep Defiance
Defiance, WWII movie starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber
(2008) “Defiance” is the amazing true story of four brothers named Bielski who led Jews from hiding and from the ghettos into the dense forests of western Belorussia (now Belarus.) The year was 1941, and German death squads were rounding up the Jews and either killing them on the spot or sending them to the extermination camps.
The author of the 1993 book on which the movie is based, “Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, ” is Nechama Tec, born in Poland to a Jewish family. She was eight years old when the Germans moved in so she lived through the Holocaust herself. Here are her thoughts when she first saw the film.
That whole area of Belorussia, Poland, Lithuania came under Russian and/or German rule at different times in their history. Their borders would change and families would migrate from place to place. One of the main characters was devastated when he learned that his wife and child had been murdered in Vilna, now the capital of Lithuania. It 1940 Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union but the following year Vilna was occupied by the Germans. It was there that my grandfather’s family … brothers and sisters along with their children … were shot by the Nazis.
If it weren’t true it would seem impossible that hundreds (up to 1200) of people could live together, taking with them only what they could carry. They nearly starved through the horrible winters. Once they would get settled, the Germans would close in and they would have to move again.
The two actors who played the older brothers were both familiar to me. Daniel Craig was Tuvia. He is the sixth James Bond and was so enticing in Casino Royale.
Liev Shreiber played Zus, the 2nd brother. Shrieber I “met” as the writer and director of another of my favorites “Everything is Illuminated.” His mother’s family is Jewish and come from Eastern Europe. The story of his early life is very interesting and should be a movie someday.
All in all, a favorite for me!
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