Europa Europa
As World War II splits Europe, sixteen-year-old German Jew Salomon (Marco Hofschneider) is separated from his family after fleeing with them to Poland, and finds himself reluctantly assuming various ideological identities in order to hide the deadly secret of his Jewishness. He is bounced from a Soviet orphanage, where he plays a dutiful Stalinist, to the Russian front, where he hides in plain sight as an interpreter for the German army, and back to his home country, where he takes on his most dangerous role: a member of the Hitler Youth. Based on the real-life experiences of Salomon Perel, Agnieszka Holland’s wartime tour de force Europa Europa is a breathless survival story told with the verve of a comic adventure, an ironic refutation of the Nazi idea of racial purity, and a complex portrait of a young man caught up in shifting historical calamities and struggling to stay alive.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Agnieszka Holland, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Holland
- New interviews with Holland and actor Marco Hofschneider
- New interview with Salomon Perel, on whose autobiography the film is loosely based
- New video essay by film scholar Annette Insdorf
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin
New cover by Gérard Dubois
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Agnieszka Holland, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Holland
- New interviews with Holland and actor Marco Hofschneider
- New interview with Salomon Perel, on whose autobiography the film is loosely based
- New video essay by film scholar Annette Insdorf
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin
New cover by Gérard Dubois
Cast
- Marco Hofschneider
- Salomon
- Julie Delpy
- Leni
- René Hofschneider
- Isaak
- Hanns Zischler
- Captain von Lereneau
- Andrzej Mastalerz
- Zenek
- André Wilms
- Robert
- Ashley Wanninger
- Gerd
- Klaus Abramowsky
- Father
- Michèle Gleizer
- Mother
- Delphine Forest
- Inna
Credits
- Director
- Agnieszka Holland
- Written by
- Agnieszka Holland
- Based on the autobiography of
- Salomon Perel
- Produced by
- Artur Brauner
- Produced by
- Margaret Menegoz
- Executive producer
- Lew Rywin
- Executive producer
- Janusz Morgenstern
- Director of photography
- Jacek Petrycki
- Music by
- Zbigniew Preisner
- Film editing by
- Ewa Smal
- Film editing by
- Isabelle Lorente
- Art director
- Allan Starski
- Costumes by
- Wiesława Starska
- Costumes by
- Małgorzata Stefaniak
- Sound
- Elisabeth Mondi
- Production manager
- Barbara Pec-Ślesicka
A scene from Europa Europa
