In The Presence of Mine Enemies

Starring:Armin Mueller-Stahl, Charles Dance, Elina LÃ¶wensohn, Chad Lowe, Don McKellar, Peter Friedman, Tony Nardi, John Dunn-Hill, Diana Skaya, Ely Bonder, Jason Shayne Schwartz, Alon Nashman, Susan Almgren, Saba Cottle, Howard Rosenstein (II), Alexandra Clermont, Ellen David, David Raboy, Jack Fisher, Andreas Apergis
Director: Joan Micklin Silver
Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
Product Type: DVD

Description

1996 Academy Aard nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl leads an international all-star cast including Charles Dance and Elina Lowensoln in this powerful story of a man tryin gto hold his family together in a world uncontrollably coming apart. Inside the walls of the famous Warsaw ghetto of 1943, amidst the methodic cruelty of the occupying Germans - andgrowing rumors of revolt - Rabbi Adam Heller (Mueller-Stahl) works to maintain calm within his cummunity while wrestling with his own sense of growing despair. But the sudden and angry reappearance of his son and a miraculous chance at survival for his daughter leads Heller to confront the ulitmate crisis of faith - and his one final shot at redemption - in this moving story from acclaimed screenwriter Rod Sterling.

Customer Reviews:

More like a play than a movie.......2006-05-26

First , I really wanted to like this movie even though I did not expect another Schindler's List type feature. The producers must have saved a lot on the very restrictive set. Let's not forget that this is the Warsaw ghetto but there are plenty of other movies which are not so claustrophobic. I'm sure this claustrophobia is more related to a limited budget than to the artistic message they want to send. 2 other things which in my opinion did not go well: The main character may be a good actor but he does not fit the physical description of a rabbi very well - especially his facial features. Without giving out the ending, I do not believe a father and especially a rabbi would have acted in the manner portrayed, but would rather have used his body as a shield for the endangered party in question.
I realize I was somehow negative in this review - there's plenty of positives and I don't feel repeating the other reviewers.

grim flowers of despair.......2006-05-02

"Lord send me tears", the Rabbi cries in despair in one scene.
And he has many reasons. Trying to be a bastion of hope to his doomed flock. People dying around him. Others diseaparing onto trains to the camps never to be heard from again. His daughter is raped by an SS officer. His son returns from the dead a demon

Oddly enough, he gets his tears and from a most unlikely source

Holocaust films are by nature not happy since the genre is that of death and despair. Yet this film does give us hope in the end.

you will not soon forget this movie.......1999-06-11

this is a beautiful movie with a powerful theme of morality.The sound track adds to the power and should be sold separately...so far I haven't found it. If you want to have some food for the mind and add some shades to the spectrum of grays see this movie.

The best movie I have ever seen.......1999-04-09

I watched this movie some months ago when it was aired on TV, and it moved me so much I could not sleep for many nights.

Nothing in the film was exagerrated, nor was anything in it untrue. The performances and screenplay were so magnificent, it was like having stepped back in time and seeing the story unfold before your eyes. It was the best potrayal of WW2 that I have ever come across.

Customer Reviews:

More like a play than a movie.......2006-05-26

grim flowers of despair.......2006-05-02

you will not soon forget this movie.......1999-06-11

The best movie I have ever seen.......1999-04-09

I watched this movie some months ago when it was aired on TV, and it moved me so much I could not sleep for many nights.

This movie, like a good book, not only deserves one viewing, but many, whenever we need to remember those who suffered the horrors of the holocaust.

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