Lauf, Junge, lauf

During the winter of 1942 nine-year-old
Srulik escapes from the Warsaw Ghetto of
occupied Poland and wanders through the
snow-covered, freezing cold woodlands.
Hunger and the cold drive him back towards
the villages, where he begs for food in the
guise of Jurek, a Catholic orphan.
Some people, such as a mother whose
husband and son have left for the woods to
join the resistance, help him whilst others
denounce him to the authorities as a Jew
in order to pocket the reward money.
Time and again Jurek is forced to run for
his life, hunted by the SS, German soldiers
and Polish anti-Semites.
Oscar laureate Pepe Danquart's film adaptation
of Uri Orlev's eponymous novel tells
the true story of Yoram Friedman. Seventyeight-
year-old Friedman today lives in
Israel, though he did for the first time
visit Germany to take a closer look at the
process behind the picturisation of his life
story. First and foremost director Pepe
Danquart celebrates the bravery of a child
forced time and again to flee and cope
with traumatic separation without losing
a belief in life and mankind in the process.
In this respect this touching film can also
be seen as an emotional manifesto and
tribute to the innocence of childhood. The
Polish twins Andy and Kamil Tkacz, who
play Jurek/Srulik are a revelation alongside
renowned German and Polish actors and
actresses such as Jeanette Hain, Rainer
Bock, Zbigniew Zamachowski and Grazyna
Szapalowska, as well as the popular Israeli
actor Itay Tiran in supporting roles.