“Run, Boy, Run!” is a 2013 German-Polish-French co-production of the film director and producer Pepe Danquart screened on the Festival of Tolerance in Belgrade at the Youth Center on 13^th November.  The film is an adaptation of the 2000 novel Run, Boy, Run by Uri Orlev, based on true events from the life of Yoram Fridman.

It couldn’t have been more realistic. The murmur of the high school students during the first ten minutes due to the fact that we could not all fit in the hall. However, everything was forgotten during the first few opening scenes of the film, which were overwhelming. The story is so powerful and touching that it cannot be conveyed into words. The absurdity of the Second World War, the Holocaust, change of identity, loss of family, fear, hunger, the struggle, life of Jews in Poland; images were just flying before our eyes.

“Run, Boy, Run!” is the extraordinary account of one boy’s survival of the Holocaust. Srulik is only eight years old when he finds himself all alone in the Warsaw ghetto. He escapes into the countryside where he spends the ensuing years hiding in the forest, dependent on the sympathies and generosity of the poor farmers in the surrounding area. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, several chases, captures, attempted executions, and even the loss of his arm, Srulik miraculously survives.

The film elicited tears, empathy and love. We were all taken aback and the murmur from the beginning had disappeared.

The film was followed by a lecture delivered by Aleksandar Ajzenberg, a professor of architecture, who survived the war as a Jew hiding in the forests of Serbia. The connection between the boy from the film and the professor, who had survived all the monstrosities of the war, made the war even more realistic. One of our students said: “Seeing this film has made me more moral.” 

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