Train of Life
| Train of Life | |
|---|---|
 original movie poster |
|
| Directed by | Radu Mihăileanu |
| Written by | Radu Mihăileanu |
| Starring | Lionel Abelanski, Rufus, Agathe de la Fontaine |
| Release date(s) | 5 September 1998 |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Language | French, German |
Train of Life (in French Train de Vie, in Romanian Trenul vieţii) is a tragicomedy film by France, Belgium, Netherlands, Israel and Romania made in 1998 in French language. It tells the story of an eastern European Jewish village's plan to escape the Holocaust.
[edit] Plot
The movie starts off with a man, named Schlomo, running crazily through a forest, with his voice playing in the background, saying that he has seen the horror of the Nazis in a nearby town, and he must tell the others. Once he gets into town, he informs the rabbi, and together they run through the town and once they have got enough people together, they hold a town meeting. At first, many of the men do not believe the horrors they are being told, and many criticize Schlomo, for he is the town lunatic, and who could possibly believe him? But the rabbi believes him, and then they try to tackle the problem of the coming terrors. Amidst the pondering and the arguing, Schlomo suggests that they build a train, so they can escape by deporting themselves. Some of their members pretend to be Nazis in order to ostensibly transport them to a concentration camp, when in reality, they are going to Palestine. Thus the Train of Life is born.
The movie ends with the voiceover of Schlomo himself, who tells the stories of his companions after the arrival of the train. Then, the camera shows him smiling behind the barbed wire of a Lager, leaving everyone dubious about the truth of his story.
