Fugitive Pieces (***)

Directed by: Jeremy Podeswa (Six Feet Under, Nip/Tuck, Carnivale, Rome, Dexter)
Starring: Stephen Dillane, Rade Šerbedžija, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer
Seen: December 18th 2008

*** Out of ****

Jakob Beer (later portrayed by Dillane) is a 7-year old child from a Jewish family living in Poland. When their house is stormed by Nazi’s his parents are murdered and his sister Bella is taken away while he hides behind a piece of wallpaper in a whole in the wall. When the soldiers leave, he crawls out of his hiding spot and runs into the forest. He doesn’t get far in the cold weather though, and soon enough buries himself under ground and leaves up to his neck. Here he is found by Athos (Šerbedžija), a Greek geologist, who saves him and smuggles him out of Poland, and it seems just in time too, as Athos receives news of the death of his entire team of geologist colleagues soon after their arrival in Zakynthos, Greece.

In Greece Jakob starts receiving a very good education, but he also notices that the more he learns (especially foreign languages), the more his traumatic past recedes into obscurity, something which he is not completely ready for, since he’s still looking for Bella, and he doesn’t want to forget anything that might help him find her. The farther Jakob feels from remembering, the more difficult he also finds his writing. This causes a massive rift between him and his wife, Alex (Pike), since she expects him to change at her pace of living and forget his past, causing their eventual divorce. Some time later Jakob meets and marries Michaela (Zurer), who seems to understand him far better than Alex ever did, and gently prods him towards finding absolution within himself over time.

The film is quite effective in getting the viewer on board with Jakob’s cause, while at the same time not completely demonising characters opposed to this cause. Right throughout the viewer constantly knows what Jakob is struggling with, and we empathise with Jakob up to the point where he finds liberty from his self-imposed prison (be that even in the smallest degree). The multilple levels of emotional impact this film portrays and also effects on the viewers is something that not many films master, and Fugitive Pieces becomes quite a memorable film for doing it so effectively. My only complaint about this film is that it is a bit slow, but maybe that allows the emotions to simmer that little bit more to influence the viewer without manipulating him.