| TRAIN OF LIFE Director: Radu Mihaileanu "Train of life is meant to be a metaphor for life. Not just Jewish life, or Gypsy life, but in general. Along the way it passes through love, death, power, politics, religion, dreams as well as the ordinary problems of real life. Sometimes it goes in circles, sometimes through important stations. But still it heads through bombs and danger towards a horizon of hope." Radu Mihaileanu Train of Life is a film that can be added to the current trend of putting The Holocaust into the context of a tragicomedy fantasy. Which is another way of saying if you're tired and cynical of this type of film stay far away but if you believe more Holocaust stories can and should be told, it's worth a look. It's 1941 and the Nazi's are approaching a small Jewish shtetl in Europe. With little time to spare the village leaders, along with the village idiot, come up with a plan to buy and refurbish a fake deportation train, dress a few of the men in Nazi uniforms, head off across Europe and fool the real Nazi's into believing the Jews on board are being taken to a concentration camp. The title, of course, is metaphorical. The train becomes a microcosm of the world with some becoming Communists, some remaining devoutly Jewish, others taking on a secular European persona and some -- not so surprisingly -- all too convincingly take the Nazi uniform to heart. The ghost train, unhindered by time schedules -- with only the goal to make it to the Soviet border without being suspected -- is on a Mobius strip through Europe. The built in suspense of the chase and the narrow misses with the Nazi's make the film worthy of a couple hours of mild enjoyment; sort of like a wide screened big budgeted version of Hogan's Heroes. Director Radu Mihaileanu, a Romanian expatriate, directs with keen attention to detail, lacing the plot with humorous interludes and multiple story lines. At times the film has the feel of many of the Eastern European films particularly an Emir Kusturica film. But Mihaileanu doesn't quite have the skill to pull it off as well, although he does garner some pretty good performances. In particular the village Rabbi (Clement Harari)-- a humorous Jewish Moses takes them from the impending doom to their salvation and one of the towns leaders (Rufus) a man who sacrifices his beliefs by pretending to become the head Nazi in order to keep his comrades out of danger.. Similar to Life is Beautiful or Schindler's List the film's thematic concerns are that of survival and the affirmation of life during and after the horrors of war. The film is perhaps the lightest of the bunch in the way it presents its story. But unlike the other films towards the end it has an ironic edge that ultimately makes the film more tragic than Life is Beautiful. Train of Life's claim to fame with is that the script was written before Life is Beautiful and what rankles the director Radu Mihaileanu is that in 1996 he sent the script to Roberto Benigni but received no response. Then a couple years of later Benigni hit the jackpot with his Holocaust film. Is it a coincidence or did Benigni steal an idea or two? Perhaps, but the fame and the box office records have been set and this film will undoubtedly finish a distant third, behind even a similar Hollywood film Jacob The Liar. Now if only Jerry Lewis would release his Jewish clown concentration camp film we would have enough to teach a film course on the intriguing subject. - Matt Langdon |