The latest film by filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés takes us to the Warsaw ghetto during the German occupation, and brings us into contact with a human drama that is as moving as it is luminous. It is inspired by a real event that took place in the winter of 1942. A Jewish theatre company offers its confined and sad fellow citizens a musical comedy by Jerzy Jurandot so that they can at least have a good time. On the day of the performance, Patryk, one of the actors, informs the leading lady, Stefcia, of his intention to run away at the end of the performance, and wants to take her with him. But she believes that it is others who must be saved. The film is a lesson in pure, sacrificial love, an antidote to the nihilism that surrounds the characters. All of this is portrayed with risky and portentous photography by Rafael García, who moves the camera with numerous and complicated sequence shots to avoid separating these two worlds – the theatrical and the real – which must remain united in the mind of the spectator. J. O.

Source: Alfa & Omega