News | Sunday, 01 February 2009

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Survival is the best revenge

The Jews went to their death without fighting the Germans who were implementing Hitler’s Final Solution by exterminating them. Defiance is based on the 1993 book by historian Nechama Tec who unearthed the little known fact that there was one group of Jewish Partisans who did fight back.
The group owed its existence to the four Bielski brothers: Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Live Schreiber), Asael (Jaime Bell) and Aron (George MacKay). The film focuses on the first three, telling their story with a mixture of historical fact and dramatic licence.
In 1941 Belorussia, Germans and Russian police were rounding up and killing the Jews. When the brothers’ parents are killed by the chief of police, they escape to the forest.
Tuvia shoots the police chief and his two sons and the brothers also kill those who are collaborating with the Germans. In the meantime, they’re joined by an increasing number of Jewish refugees until the group grows into a community.
The Bielskis make random and successful attacks on the Germans and as their fame spreads, the Nazis intensify their search for the partisans’ hideout. As autumn turns into winter, the group must also deal with the lack of food, illness and an uneasy alliance with an organised band of Russian partisans.
But the biggest problem remains the ongoing clash between Tuvia, who’s an idealist for whom their revenge will be to survive, and Zus who’s pragmatic and bent on direct revenge.
Defiance is directed by Edward Zwick who also co-wrote the screenplay and whose credits include Glory and The Last Samurai. By nature, the story is episodic but Zwick gives it a feeling of immediacy and a sense of evolvement.
His direction is accurately judged, keeping most of the film moving at a good pace and without lingering on the sorrow of the refugees for sentimentality. Similarly, the violence is depicted realistically but there’s no dwelling on the bloody details.
The only serious handicap is that Tuvia’s character strains credibility as his noble ideals sound unlikely in such an atmosphere of hardship, hatred and persecution. Craig tries hard to make Tuvia credible but he cannot overcome the difficulties such a character presents.
Conversely, Zus is completely convincing in his hatred for the enemy and his desire, if not need, to kill. Events often prove that under the circumstances, his methods are the sensible ones and Zus develops into a practical and professional partisan.
The film is dominated by Schreiber’s forceful and memorable portrayal. It’s in the third act, when Zus is absent for most of the time, that Craig is at his best as, having become conflicted, he tries to deal with the consequences caused by his mercy.
Three of the brothers become attracted to three of the women refugees. Lilka (Alexa Davalos) and Bella (Iben Hjejle) become the “forest wives” of Tuvia and Zus respectively while Asael marries Bella’s daughter, Chaya.
The latter is mainly present to represent youth and sweetness but, although their roles are brief, Davalos and Hjejle make valuable supporting contributions, especially Davalos who’s impressive in her scary solitary encounter with a ravenous wolf.
During Asael’s marriage, the film seems to have succumbed to romantic sentimentality but Zwick soon eliminates that impression by intercutting the marriage ceremony and celebration with the hardness of the partisans’ ambush on the German forces.
Eduardo Serra’s cinematography is excellent, its beauty is muted so as not to be obtrusive but he catches the natural beauty of the forest with his palette of subtle greens and greyish blues. During a battle at night with a German party, Serra catches the spontaneity of the sudden, startled actions.
Defiance is two hours and 16 minutes long and it eventually reaches a stage where it looks as if it will outstay its welcome but that’s when the band faces its biggest threats.
Most of the action takes place in the third act and the battles are exciting, dramatic and illustrate the desperate but determined bid for survival against seemingly impossible odds.
The brief epilogue shows us the photos of the real brothers as captions tell us what happened to them. The closing caption states that more than 1200 Jews survived the war hidden in the forest.

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