Europa Europa

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Director/writer Agnieszka Holland had a similar experience as her main character in Europa Europa (1990). They were both caught between two worlds. Holland is from Poland, and her father was Jewish, but her mother was Catholic. One’s Jewish nature derives from the maternal side, according to Orthodox standards, so she was not officially a Jew by that standard, and the community adhering to that rule did not accept her as one of their own. But, bigotry has no such boundaries, and racists targeted her. The main character in the film, Salomon (Solly) Perel (the story is based on his memoir), played by Marco Hofschneider, is a Jew trying to survive during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

The opening shot, which is probably a dream sequence, shows Solly as a boy, which can represent the innocence of youth. He is under water wearing a military jacket and swastika armband, suggesting the corruption of that youthfulness. He is holding onto an adult soldier at the same time trying to get away from the man, while attempting to get above water. The image summarizes the predicament of hiding one’s identity to survive, and trying to find one’s place of belonging. As Amy Taubin says in her essay, “Border States,” Solly says that he was born in Germany and his parents were Azriel (Klaus Abramowski) and Rebecca (Michele Gleizer). The announcement establishes who Solly is, and his story becomes dealing with the suppression or embracement of that heritage. The title of the film suggests the duality of a world that embodies diversity but also embraces the hate of what is different.

There is a scene showing Solly’s circumcision, which his voice-over says he remembers. Perhaps that memory is so strong that it keeps him grounded as to his Jewish identity. The story jumps forward to Solly’s bar mitzah, when he is considered an adult male in Jewish tradition. It coincides with the Nazi attack on Jewish homes in his town. It is a horrible way to leave behind childhood and be thrust into the horrors of the adult world. We hear The Blue Danube in the background in Solly’s home, a contrast of German beauty with its brutality. Solly is taking a bath when the onslaught occurs, and he is naked as he jumps out of his bathroom window after the glass shatters. He hides in a barrel. Symbolically it looks like he is being reborn into a different life. The only clothes he can get, courtesy of a young girl in the neighborhood, is that jacket with the Nazi armband, which ushers in his new life. When he returns inside his house he sees that his sister has been killed.

The story is a picaresque tale as Solly travels through several places. The family leaves for Poland. He rides a bike and he crashes into a storekeeper holding the shop window. Again, we have glass shards. Solly’s world is shattering, but is he also part of the forces causing that destruction, given his future life? The family lives above a movie theater and the enamored female cashier, Basia (Nathalie Schmidt) lets him in for free. The film may suggest that movies allow one to escape the present madness by going into a world of imagination. Taubin says that Solly’s good looks along with some luck allow him to endure throughout the Holocaust. For example, he was to run the errand that his sister undertook, which led to her death.

Solly’s father sends him and his reel and real brother, Isaak (Rene Hofschneider), away as the Germans invade Poland. Solly narrates that the Poles at the time preferred Hitler to Stalin. A Russian soldier rescues Solly during a river crossing, and Solly is now cut off from his family, and therefore his roots, since he is separated from his brother. Solly winds up in a school for orphaned boys where he says he was turned into a good Russian Communist boy. In a way he reflects the cultures he passes through. Director Holland mentions that he is like Zelig in the Woody Allen film. He receives a letter from his father that says not to forget who he is. And that is his challenge.

The Russians don’t care about his being Jewish, only what social class he is from. Since his father owned a shop, they consider him bourgeoisie, one of the enemies of the workers. Again, a young woman, one of the teachers, defends him. The film shows how Solly will do what it takes to survive, even if it means turning in a fellow Polish student, Zenek (Andrzej MasTalerz), who is anti-Stalin, when the youth attacks him for being Stalin’s “puppet.” He also follows the party line as he gives a speech about religion being “the opiate of the people.” That same Polish student shows his ugliness by being anti-Semitic, and the Communist school official condemns him for his racism. But the attractive schoolteacher then mocks the Polish boy for his Catholic beliefs, showing how his prayers will not bring candy from the sky, but Stalin’s followers can drop candy from the ceiling. The stress here is that materialism eclipses spirituality. There is a picture in the background of Stalin, which makes one recall the large pictures of Hitler (dictators are narcissists who want to be seen as having God-like power). Children are in attendance during this scene. The director implies that all indoctrination is dangerous. Taubin writes that fascism is based upon hating the “other,” while Communism had loftier goals. It is the subversion of those ideals by corrupt leaders that Holland is targeting. The film is not didactic in praising one view. It shows the failings of all humans.

The candy raining from the sky is replaced by the roof collapsing as the Germans attack, deflating the euphoria of the moment and showing how quickly the materialistic world can switch from bounty to deprivation. As the school’s population become refugees and are attacked by planes, Solly runs for cover and the truck carrying other students and the schoolteacher drive away. She throws him an apple, an interesting reversal of the teacher-student relationship.

The occupying Germans capture Solly. He is originally from Germany, so his fluency in the language helps him. There is a shot of Solly looking up at the sun, and there is a suggestion that he gets some divine inspiration. He tells the German soldiers he was in an orphanage school. Taubin says that Solly “intuitively understands that his survival in part depends on his allowing those around him believe anything what suits their fantasies about themselves.” The women he encounters engage in this activity, and no so do the Germans. He says his name is Josef Peters so he will not have a Jewish-sounding name, and his captors assume that the Russians killed his parents. He speaks Russian as well, so he can be useful as a translator, and actually identifies Stalin’s son, which endears him to the Germans. He is like Chance in Being There, where others imprint their beliefs onto him. There is also a bit of Brecht’s Mother Courage here, who adopts whatever country she is in to survive.

Back at the German camp, Solly is offered food. He takes a bite of sausage, but then spits it out. Is he upset that he is not keeping kosher? The Polish student Zanek is a captive there and shouts out in Russian that Solly is a Jew. Solly translates exactly what Zanek says, and a German soldier, not understanding Russian, tells him to confront Zanek, who he slaps him which makes it appear that Solly is offended by being called a Jew. Zanek jumps over the fence separating them and then runs off as soldiers close in on him. A truck then hits Zanek, killing him. Solly faints, as if overwhelmed by the consequences of his action, which means that the preservation of his own life can lead to the death of another. Later the company captain interviews Solly and tells him that the war is not against Russia, England, or France, but is a “holy war” against the Jews. Solly also witnesses the dead body of a young Russian girl who was hanged. Solly says in his voiceover that he was so confused by these German soldiers who treated him well but were capable of such hatred. He wonders if what separates them is a little “foreskin,” which implies that Solly wonders if he, too, could be capable of atrocities. These scenes add to the weight of guilt Solly is carrying because of his trying to keep surviving among haters.

There is a surrealist scene inserted here that shows Stalin and Hitler dancing (representing their prior accord), with candy falling from the ceiling (as happened in the previous scene at the school), and young ballerinas gathering up the sweets. Zanek is there with a large gash in his body. There are then menacing looks exchanged between Stalin and Hitler, possibly suggesting the new animosity between them given the Nazi invasion. Holland does not show that this is a dream sequence, but Zanek’s appearance suggests it is one of Solly’s dreams.

Solly encounters Robert (Andre Wilms), a gay German soldier who was an actor. They bond, sharing their love of literature and film. Solly asks him if it is difficult playing other people, to which Robert says, “Much easier than being yourself.” This simple exchange reveals Solly’s concern over his pretending to be a Nazi. But, Robert’s words stress how difficult it is to be one’s true self (if one can even know what that is), which in both their cases could lead to dire consequences. Solly takes a bath in a barn, which reminds us of the scene at the beginning of the film. He is surprised by Robert who reveals his gay orientation by reaching for Solly’s genitals. Solly jumps out of the tub and Robert sees that Solly is circumcised, and thus, a Jew. (Solly just can’t have a relaxing bath). He promises to keep his secret, since he has one of his own, and sympathizes with Solly being ethnically closeted. It is darkly comic that it is Solly’s penis that keeps forcing him to identify himself as Jewish.

Preparing for Christmas, Solly tells Robert that his sister loved the holidays, while he hated Passover, getting nauseous from eating eggs. When Robert asks if he prays, Solly repeats the line from Marx about religion being the opium for the masses. Is that what he really believes now, or has he adopted what he has been exposed to while denying his past to stay alive? Robert asks if he would be able to play a Jew. Jokingly, Solly says Robert looks too stupid, to which the laughing Robert calls Solly a racist, since Solly comically referenced a Jewish stereotype about all Jews being clever.

In the trenches, Russian enemy fire kills Robert. Solly mourns the loss of all those he cared about and no longer wants to keep playing a phony. He says he wishes to be with his “own kind.” But he can’t seem to escape the charade. On a phone line belonging to the Russians he says he wants to come over to their side since he is a Jew who attended a Russian school. They tell him to approach them holding a rifle. However, the German soldiers arrive in larger numbers and the Russians surrender. The Germans think Solly was attacking the Russians by himself. They praise him, and the captain, who has never had children, wants to adopt him. Again, others project what they want reality to be onto Solly.

The captain sends Solly to go to a Hitler youth school. What follows is another darkly humorous scene. On the train to the school he is in the company of an older German woman. She has a cigarette lighter in the form of a bullet, a scary image subverting a harmless object into a threatening one. After handing identification papers over to a German soldier, they must darken the room most likely to evade being seen and targeted. The woman remarks that Solly has the same birthday as Hitler, and has the same “dark hair.” Again, we have a woman drawn to Solly, and she seduces him, calling out “Mein Fuhrer!” while having sex. The double nature of Solly, of Germany, and maybe humankind is suggested by the comparison.

It is funny to hear Solly introduced as a pure-bred German to the Hitler school students. He must raise his arm in the Nazi salute and swear allegiance to the enemy of all Jews. He observes a student coming out of the shower with his underwear on. Could this fellow also be a Jew is disguise? Solly practices saluting and clicking heels in front of a mirror. As has been often noted on this blog, mirrors can reflect the underside, or doppelgänger, of a person. But then, Solly starts dancing, which undermines his attempt to perform as a programmed puppet of the Third Reich.

The film shows us the craziness of the Hitler school. They are ordered to perform the smallest details, including to use a fork and a knife in the proper hands. They are told to stay healthy, as if that is a command that can be obeyed. The swimming pool has a huge swastika painted on its bottom which shows how Nazism permeates their every moment.

There is a lecture from Goethke (Erich Swartz) about how to recognize a Jew that is so outrageously racist it succeeds in being an effective satiric scene. Besides exaggeratingly describing physical stereotypes, he even believes that “Jewish blood is totally different from ours.” Goethke says that by understanding these racial differences, the students will never be deceived by a Jew pretending he is something he is not. The irony here is that he says these words in the presence of Solly, who is a handsome young Jewish man successfully adopting the Germanic role. He even picks Solly from the class and, after using varying measuring devices, and declares Solly is authentically Aryan. He says, “The Nordic man is the gem of this earth,” whose “body is perfect.” I guess he doesn’t include women. Again, we have some kind of fantasy being projected which is totally not grounded in reality.

Immersed in the Hitler school, Solly waivers in his earlier resolve to be authentic. He sings a song in praise of Germany’s supremacy after learning of a defeat to the Russians. He falls for Leni (Julie Delpy, of the later Richard Linklater “Before …” trilogy). He tries to pull back and secure his foreskin (and thus recede from his background) so he can have sex with her and not be discovered. But, he injures his penis and releases the foreskin. In contrast to this attempt to be assimilated, he can’t make the sign of the cross when meeting Leni’s mother (Halena Labonarska), and later draws the Star of David on a soaped-up window before rubbing it off. He fakes a toothache so he doesn’t have to undress for a physical examination. However, he must suffer the unanesthetized pulling of the healthy molar, with the scene looking like a sort of Nazi torture act.

While making out with Leni he must stop before it goes too far and he reveals the circumcised penis. When they walk in the woods he finds a massive gathering of Jewish gravestones that must have been removed from a Jewish cemetery by the Nazis. Leni says if she saw a Jew she would slit his throat. She calls Jews lice that must be exterminated. Solly can’t swallow the indignation this time and slaps her. Outraged, she says no one slaps a German woman. It isn’t the “woman” part of her declaration that is noteworthy, it’s the “German” word that is telling, implying her belief in the superiority of the race. After she runs off, he copies the depiction of the hands on a grave marker that resembles partly Spock’s “Live long and prosper,” signal, which Leonard Nimoy derived from his Jewish background.

Solly has a nightmare where he says he is back home joining his family at dinner. But he is wearing a Nazi leather coat with the swastika armband showing how he doesn’t belong. They all leave the room, locking him out so he can’t join them, depriving him of his true home. When he is allowed to enter the next room, his sister hides him, like Anne Frank, and Hitler (Ryszard Pietruski) is there, covering his genitals, because his sister says he must hide his being a Jew. We again have the double motif, as German and Jewish identities are blurred. Hitler turns into Robert, and he is shot in front of Solly, as he relives the horror of war.

Solly returns to where he lived in Germany to look for his relatives. He must travel through the Jewish Ghetto there. The trolley he rides on has soaped-up windows so passengers can’t see the atrocities the Germans have committed, where children are behind barbed wire fences and bodies are carried out of the area. He narrates that he traveled through the ghetto many times because he thought he saw a woman who looked like his mother, but he never finds her.

Back at the Hitler youth school, he must charge with a bayonet and stab a dummy that wears the Jewish Star of David. His attempts are feeble, and he is reprimanded by the instructor. He goes to see Leni, but she is away. Her mother is upset by her daughter’s enraptured devotion to Hitler. She became pregnant to have a child for the Fuhrer. But the mother has Italian blood on her side, so the child may not be pure Aryan. So, Leni plans to offer her child to Hitler. This act sounds like a pagan ritual sacrifice. Her mother says to Solly she doesn’t understand her daughter, who it is suggested has a cult-like attachment to the Nazi cause. Solly guesses that the father of the baby is his roommate at the school, Gerd (Ashley Wanninger). The mother knows that Solly would not have sex with Leni and wants to know the truth. He needs someone to confess to, and he tells her he is Jewish. She says she thought so, and, like the other women in the story, feels drawn to the boy, and promises not to reveal his secret.

Solly’s Certificate of Racial Purity (as if there is such a way to prove this fact, and which would probably require in-breeding), is not among Solly’s records. The commander says he will request it. Solly learns that Hitler has a “miracle weapon” that will be ready for use. The atomic bomb? Just as he thinks he no longer can hide who he is, the building Solly just left is bombed, and the commander is killed. It’s as if divine intervention occurs again to save Solly, but there is collateral damage once more. Gerd is killed in the attack.

The Hitler school students are sent to fight the Russians, but Solly can’t pull the trigger to shoot anyone. He runs off and surrenders to the Russians, claiming he is not a Nazi, but is Jewish. They do not believe him, as they show him pictures of those killed in concentration camps, and Solly would have been one of them. He says he didn’t know, and he is like other Germans who said they did not know of places like Auschwitz. The irony here is that when Solly finally feels he can embrace his Jewish identity, he is to be shot by a liberated inmate of a camp, which would mean a Jew killing another Jew. Solly’s brother, Isaac, from whom he was separated, and is a freed inmate, recognizes him and joyously and emotionally saves him.

Solly feels guilty since he learns his father and mother died in the ghetto and his brother was in a concentration camp while Solly was shouting, “Heil Hitler,” and courting the Nazi Leni. Solly narrates that he went all in concerning his heritage after reuniting with his brother. He went to live in Palestine, which later became the Jewish state of Israel, had boys who were circumcised, and lived openly as a Jew from that point forward.

The next film is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.