Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Excellent but underrated film

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I suggest you ignore the negative reviews of this film as the writers seem to have an agenda. The script is very good, the acting is excellent and the direction is very good as well.For children old enough to have learned about the war and the holocaust in school, this is a very useful film as the three main characters for almost the entire film are three children. It is true that at the beginning and end of the film there are scenes in the present day and we see the children now as older adults, however, these two scenes together probably account for less than five minutes from the entire film.There is one short scene in the film when violence is shown (not involving any children), however, considering it is a holocaust film, that is rather minimal.Although the Nazis are shown as the monsters they were, we also see it from a slightly different perspective: one of the children is German and one of her parents is sympathetic to the Nazi government, though this parent also shows sympathy to some of the Jewish children.While this film might be enlightening for young people, it is also well suited to adults. This is not specifically a children's film. Rather it tells an interesting and somewhat unusual story about a specific incident in history (I have no idea if the story is about real people).If you are interested in this unfortunate period in history, this would be a fine addition to your film library.

The film "Wunderkinder" starts and ends with an elderly woman who gets a letter from a mysterious acquaintance. In-between this frame, the story switches back to when she was a young girl during the days of World War II and how she creates a bond with two Jewish children, a boy and a girl. The film runs for 100 minutes and is directed by Markus Rosenmüller. Pay attention: He is not the director with the same name (slightly different spelling) from "Grave Decisions". Rosenmüller also wrote the script with no less than 4 other writers. One of them worked on the script of the Academy Award nominated "Europa Europa" There are some known faces to German audiences in the cast, mostly all the older actors, but no real superstars.The story centers around a German family that lives in the Ukraine when Hitler decides to declare war against the Russians and everybody else. We see their struggles and fight for survival in the face of Stalin's power just like we see the fight for survival by Jewish citizens. My favorite scene is definitely the final concert where it is all about living and dying. It was very strenuous to watch the action there and Konstantin Wecker gave a great performance in that scene even if he was just sitting in his chair watching the action. His character probably felt like playing God that very moment. Also, the premise of playing a perfect concert despite being a Jew is an interesting one as German perception back in the day was that everybody who does not belong to the "Herrenrasse" is flawed and ultimately replaceable, maybe even worthless. But the little Ukrainean boy proves Wecker's character wrong. Perfection does exist outside the Germn Reich. And even if we knew that the boy would live from the very beginning back at the present time, we could still wonder about what is going too happen to the girl.All in all, I hoped for more from this movie. Everything except the ending was slightly underwhelming and when the two meet in the very end, it is also not as emotionally impactful as it could have been. Also, the whole premise of child prodigies is fairly replaceable as the only purpose it really has comes with my favorite scene. Other than that, it could have been just two normal kids as well. And back to my favorite scene, when the girl plays wrong, it is also way over the top. Two wrong notes and thus a more subtle approach could have been at least as effective, maybe even more than a complete meltdown. Nonetheless, this movie got lots of awards recognition, so many people probably appreciated it more than I did. To me, it is just another generic Nazi movie. These have been done so many times already and there is hardly never a new one, which brings something new to the table. I don't think this one is. Not recommended.

Why in the world people who made that movie didn't employ a consultant? Most of the scenes are so ridiculous that all the tragic circumstances are lost. I am not talking about the details like the Russian uniforms that don't resemble the reality, medals on the wrong side of the chest, Ukrainian peasants clothes that match more the German burgers, the trains and the railroad stations that don't even resemble Ukraine, the obnoxious red stars that were never put on the walls in the Soviet Union. I am talking about the actions. The Jews, especially over 50 years old, are taken away by trains. To where? The concentration camps were in Poland, not in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Jews, and all of them, young and old, were murdered in their cities. They were usually taken to the local wood, forced to dig their own grave, remove all the clothes and then Germans murdered them by machine guns. If some stayed alive, the brave German soldiers used to walk over the grave and shoot the survivors by their pistols. 60% of the Ukrainian Jews, about ONE MILLION men, women, elderly and children,were killed by Germans during the war. Did we see that? No, in this movie the war is not so bad. They drink German beer that is very good. Is that an advertisement of German beer embedded in a tragic story? Hanna's mother, a Nazi party member,sheds tears when a Jewish girl plays out of tune. A Nazi has a compassion to a Jewish girl! This is the new "truth" about the war. Some Nazis were even good! The whole movie is unbelievable, lacks any talent, and it would've been better if the creators of that junk could do another junk but without touching the Holocaust. My advice: skip that movie, it's not worth to see.

Holocaust movies are not easy viewing. However, they are usually uplifting dramas telling stories of incredible human courage and endurance, alongside horrific cruelty. I see everyone that I can, not because I need to know any more about the holocaust but because I feel we need to bear witness to this tragedy in our history. There are still stories to be told and we should honour those stories by listening, reading and watching.The children in this German language film are fabulous and the friend who attended the preview with me said that she had to keep repeating to herself that it wasn't real, so she didn't break down. It is also a fascinating story of friendship and courage.