UK Jewish Film

Habermann

So many wartime films like their narratives to be broad-brush: beacons of individual heroism among terror and sweeping arcs of good and evil. Habermann is resolutely neither of these, rather an engaging, morally complex take on World War Two and the rapidly shifting loyalties of wartime. Wealthy mill owner August Habermann, part of the centuries-old German population of Czech Sudetenland, is married with a young family to local Czech beauty Jana, and cares not a jot about Nazis, the Resistance, or ideology of any kind. But when the German army invades his small-town haven, the fact that he is German and his wife part Jewish forces him to make compromises that place him at the centre of a violent spiral that tears everything he knows apart. A brave cinematic exploration into the impossible choices of war that throws revealing light onto an uncomfortable and little known chapter in European history. Jonathan Walton

Part of Made In Prague Festval, 10-27th November 2011

Juraj Herz's classic films The Cremator and Morgiana are available to purchase from Second Run DVD

In Association with