Bau: Artist At War – An Amazing True Story!

This is a holocaust movie, but it is an excellent and uplifting one.  The film is a true story, based upon the memoirs of Joseph Bau.  Spielberg's "Schindler's List" sets the bar for holocaust movies, but this movie is the second-best holocaust film I have seen!  I think it's a MUST-SEE for any Jew, but it's a great movie and anyone will enjoy it (who can tolerate some horrific concentration camp scenes).  It's only playing at a handful of theaters and probably won't last long, so I'd try to see it as soon as possible.  It will probably wind up in my Top 5 for 2025. The film begins in 1971.  Joseph Bau (Emile Hirsch) is living in Israel when an attorney requests him to testify at the trial of Nazi war criminal Franz Gruen (Yan Yual).  Gruen committed numerous atrocities at Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp in Poland.  Gruen was tried before, but wasn't convicted.  Bau is reluctant to testify again, since testifying triggers the traumas he suffered at this camp. The film then switches to WWII.  Bau starts out in the Krakow ghetto, but soon winds up in the above concentration camp, along with his family.  Bau is a talented artist who uses his skills to forge documents that enable camp prisoners on the camp's termination list to escape.  He saved over 1000 lives!  While at the camp, he meets Rebecca Tennenbaum (Inbar Lavi), who is another remarkable person.  (FYI: Lavi is my favorite Israeli actress!  She has been in numerous TV series, among them "Imposters," "Prison Break," and "Fauda.") I won't say any more about the plot, but, as upsetting as some of the concentration camp scenes are, the film demonstrates how love, ingenuity, humor, courage, friendship, and resilience can triumph even over pure evil.