Border Street (1948)

Original name: Ulica Graniczna

Director: Aleksander Ford

Writers: Jan Fethke, Aleksander Ford, Ludwik Starski

Composer: Roman Palester

Starring: Mieczyslawa Cwiklinska, Jerzy Leszczynski, Wladyslaw Godik, Wladyslaw Walter, Merzy Pichelski, Tadeusz Fijewski, Jozef Munclinger, Robert Vrchota, Stefan Srodka, Eugeniusz Kruk, Jerzy Zlotnicki, Dionizy Ilczenko, Maria Broniewska

More info: IMDb

Plot:  This covers the events that led to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in which a small but heroic band of Jews, herded into a ghetto by German occupation forces, chose to resist the Nazis rather than to face deportation to Auschwitz or Treblinka.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Talk about efficiency in character introductions!  The filmmakers did a bang up job in dropping us into the lives of a variety of people living on one street in 1930s Warsaw.  I was astonished at how well everyone is covered and memorable and there are a lot of players in this picture.  Another surprising aspect is how well the passage of time is handled.  The film begins days before the German invasion on September 1, 1939 and ends with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April, 1943 and there are moments where you discover a year has passed without the story being interrupted.  There's no hand holding in this film.  The performances are very good and it's a well shot, well made film.  There are few moments of brutality but they are effective when they happen.  It's even more powerful knowing that this was made a few short years away from the actual event.  That and it was filmed in Poland and by Poles where even the youngest actors in the movie would have memories of the uprising.  Much of the film takes place outside of the Ghetto and when we go inside it, the Ghetto looks authentic.  The ending is satisfying and gives hope to those who are fighting the Nazis who have begun their attack to eradicate the Ghetto of the remaining Jews, while stopping before the resistance was stopped.  The story of the Ghetto is horrifying enough but this film juxtaposes that by letting us see it through a child's eyes, being forced to grow up after very little time on this Earth.