Europa Europa (1990) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by EnteredTheVoid ★★★★½ 1

  So good they named it twice

• Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★ 3

  Europa Europa possesses an extraordinary narrative which is an adaption of Solomon Perel’s 1989 autobiography, who was a German Jewish boy who escaped persecution during the Holocaust by impersonating a Nazi. The direction by Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden) manages to transform an incredible and historical memoir of intolerance into a gripping film complemented with a couple of strikingly absurdist dream segments; one of them encompassing Hitler and Stalin engaging in a waltz! It conserves an ironical tone where the details of the succession of life-threatening situations for Solomon are rendered utterly compelling and makes for an intriguingly personal and nonfictional story.

• Review by Lise ★★★

  I didn't know that this film was based on a true story. My husband pointed it out as the credits rolled, when he noticed that the older Solomon Perel was being played by the real Solomon Perel.

  This information proved to be a bit of a relief, but also raised questions about my reaction. Why should the things that bothered me about the film be forgiven now that I know its origin? I don't like to read anything about a film before viewing it. Is this a huge mistake? I sure would have come off as stupid had I written what I was going to write... It just raised all those questions about how to view films, you know, should…

• Review by Fabian ★★★★½ 2

  Europa Europa is a harrowing and emotionally unsettling story of survival. In the early days of World War II, a Jewish boy is separated from his family and claims to be a German orphan in order to have a chance at surviving a war fought against his family, his friends, himself. Salomon Perel's story plunges us deep into a young person's perspective at the war, as "Sally" socializes with Russian boys at a Soviet orphanage, then poses as German "Josef" in order to avoid execution during the German invasion and – by pure chance – becomes celebrated as a war hero and integrated into the Hitler Youth.

  Agnieszka Holland's film is a story of multiplicity: she highlights how nothing is…

• Review by smallclone ★★★★½ 2

  This is a bit of a gem. Based on a true story. So well crafted. A young Jewish man has to pretend to be German in order to survive the holocaust.

  As the film hints, it's such an extraordinary story that it risks nobody believing it. Not sure about the casting of a young Julie Delpy as a German girl (dubbed into German) but that aside its a really good film.

• Review by Conchobarre ★★★½ 8

  This is the third film I've seen this year where a Jewish person becomes a Nazi. In Europa Europa a Polish Jewish boy played by Marco Hofschneider finds himself separated from his family into a Russian orphanage. He learns to quote Stalin, goes to the front with the Germans as their interpreter then ends up as a Hitler Youth. He's a very adaptable boy. His biggest source of anxiety (amongst many) is that someone will see his circumcised penis. Luckily the Hitler Youth shower in their dacks.

  Apparently this is based on a true story, but deviates somewhat from Solomon Perel's memoir.
  Edit:
  Re-reading this review I realised it comes across as flippant which wasn't on purpose. This is actually…

• Review by Ford H ★★★★

  “Isn’t it hard playing someone else? Much easier than being yourself!”

  Europa Europahas traits of a satire without being a satire, and perhaps that’s for the best since the subject matter is very serious and is based on an autobiography.

  It’s fascinating how far our 13 year old central character, Salomon, is willing to go to survive, but at the same time, you need luck to be on your side if you’re a Jew in WW2. The idea of switching sides between the Soviet army and Nazi army is great though pretty ridiculous, but it works for the sake of this story and has some logic to get behind because of the self-preservation angle. I say satire because the movie…

• Review by James ★★★★

  Plays out like an absurdist farce and yet truth is stranger than fiction in Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa, a historical WW2 drama based on the real life accounts of Solomon Perel, a Jewish German who miraculously manages to evade capture by posing first as a communist, then a front-line German soldier and finally, most perilously, as a Hitler Youth right under the enemy's nose.

  Perel, like Władysław Szpilman in The Pianist, is a morally malleable protagonist who earns our sympathy not through heroic acts but simply by his will to survive and ability to adapt as the situation requires. The film explores themes of identity and youth indoctrination whilst telling an incredible story, naturally Holland embellishes certain details for artistic…

• Review by Adryon Thomas ★★★½

  Jojo Rabbit... but more intense, less funny, and at least three times more penis and circumcision imagery.

• Review by Zeeneaste (Christian) ★★★★½ 4

  The German title Hitlerjunge Salomon made me expect a bulky biopic with an emphasis on the moral pointing finger. Its international title Europa Europa then made me fear even worse: it could be pretentious. Luckily, I put it on anyways and let myself get proven wrong.

  This film depicts the true survival story of the German Jewish boy Solek "Sally" Perel who survived WWII by pretending to be member of the Hitler Youth. The material gets elevated by writer and director Agnieszka Holland's decision to take this framework and add discussions of what it means to be raised on the basis of religion, Nazism or Stalinism.

  Every scene and character in this is charged: we get antisemitic Polish communists, a…

• Review by jaime ⁎⁺˳✧༚

  Europa Europa es probablemente una de las mejores películas del holocausto jamás realizadas. Ofrece escenas difíciles de creer con bastante frecuencia, pero sabiendo que se basa en una historia real, se vuelve cada vez más fascinante. Es imposible no admirar el coraje y la persistencia de Salomon Perel. Y una sutil representación de sus experiencias de la vida real nos ha dado una película adorable.

• Review by williamfaeleith ★★★★½ 2

  Re-watch of an old favourite, Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa in a beautiful 2016 restored version (Criterion Blu-ray).
  Based on the true story of Solomon Perel, a German-born Jewish boy who escaped persecution by the Nazis by pretending to be an ethnic German, which basically involves hiding the fact that he is circumcised - which includes some painfully unsuccessful attempts to sew what was left of his foreskin back into place.
  His story from the day before his intended bar mitzvah in 1938 until the end of the war in 1945 is an amazing one and includes (***spoilers ahead***) 1) escaping from an attack on his home during Kristallnacht that killed his sister, 2) moving to Poland with his family but…