‘Fugitive Pieces’

By Michael Machosky, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Jul. 11–Unfortunately, movies about the Holocaust have a certain stigma attached — for even the most ardent cinephile, it’s more like taking medicine than a fun date night at the movies.

Although the Holocaust is the beginning, end and animating force for “Fugitive Pieces,” this low-key film doesn’t wallow in the horrors. Jakob (Stephen Dillane) was a boy when the Nazis burst into his home, killed his father and took his mother and beloved sister Bella, as Jakob fled into the woods.

A Greek archaeologist, Athos (Rade Serbedzija) discovers him hiding in a hole in the ground and decides to take him back to his home on an isolated — but German-occupied — Greek island.

This story is intercut with a grown-up Jakob, now a celebrated historian, slowly alienating his beautiful wife because of his fixation on the Holocaust. His sister Bella appears to him in dreams, and he constantly tries to find a way to communicate with her.

Jakob’s struggle is mostly internal — how can he reconcile the horrors of his past, and learn to love others?

I’m not familiar with Anne Michaels’ acclaimed novel, so the hotly debated matter of its fidelity to the book is largely moot here.

Director Jeremy Podeswa’s script is beautifully written, however, although some of its premises are suspect. How are there Greek archeological digs in Poland, during World War II?

There’s also precious little suspense. The stately, elegaic tone could have used a little more velocity, at certain points.

Most of the film is in English, but the occasional Greek and Yiddish subtitles are exceedingly tiny. If you go, sit up close.

–At Manor Theatre, Squirrel Hill

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