Does the world need another film about World War II? That conflict must be re-created on film more than any other. Is there anything left to say about the terror Hitler perpetuated on Europe and the wildly varying reactions to it? The Academy thinks so. It put “Winter in Wartime” on the shortlist this year for best foreign language film. And with good reason — the Dutch film is gripping from beginning to end. On its release in the Netherlands three years ago, it beat “Twilight” and “The Dark Night” at the box office. It won’t do such business here, of course. But it deserves to find an audience. The themes of loyalty, collaboration, hypocrisy and principle at the heart of so many European films about the war are freshly explored here, from the eyes of a young teenager. The 2008 British film “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” looked at the Holocaust from the view of a young boy. The one at the center of “Winter in Wartime” is older — 14 — and so more knowing and more disappointed in the choices made by the adults around him.
| On screen |
| ‘Winter in Wartime’ |
| 4 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Martijn Lakemeier, Jamie Campbell Bower, Yorick van Wageningen |
| Director: Martin Koolhoven |
| Rated: R for some language |
| Running time: 103 minutes |
The winter in question is the last one of the war. It’s January 1945, and Michiel (Martijn Lakemeier), the son of the mayor (Raymond Thiry), resents the way his father walks the fine line between loyalty to his country and peace-making with the Nazi occupiers. He’s much fonder of his Uncle Ben (Yorick van Wageningen), a member of the Resistance who cuts a brave figure. But Michiel will learn how difficult it is to make the right decisions in a time of war when he gets involved in it himself. After a friend is arrested by the Germans, Michiel discovers he’s been sheltering a British soldier (Jamie Campbell Bower, who was the best thing about the recent “Sweeney Todd” film) whose plane crashed nearby.
The young Lakemeier carries this intelligent film almost on his own. He’s just as a young teenager would be in such circumstances: resourceful about shielding his charge one minute, complaining that it’s his sister’s turn to set the table the next. No adolescent should have to face the choices — and the knowledge — he does. But wartime is not like other times. Some of its hard choices are, though. The brutal war magnified the decisions we make all the time, between compromising by taking the easy path and doing the right thing, no matter the cost to our own all-too-fleeting lives. “Winter in Wartime” proves there’s still much to learn about the war — and ourselves.
