In a sentenceThe grown-ups get the familiar names; the children get our attention
Children who have survived the Holocaust begin the difficult work of accepting care and rebuilding their lives. The adults around them include Oscar Friedmann (Thomas Kretschmann), Marie Paneth (Romola Garai) and Jock Lawrence (Iain Glen). Among the young survivors is Schmuel ‘Sam’ Laskier (Marek Wroblewski). The children need to feel safe, but accepting help means trusting people after experiences that have made trust difficult. As friendships begin to form, creative activities offer another way to communicate. The adults try to support that process, while the children face the more immediate question of how to get through an ordinary day.
Plays from YouTube when you press play; nothing loads from them until then.
Michael Samuels’s drama about young Holocaust survivors is moving and carefully acted, though sometimes too reassuring. The young ensemble deserves a tighter script, but its tentative friendships make the film worth our time.
The Windermere Children is a moving drama about the help young Holocaust survivors need, though its reassuring tone sometimes makes their recovery seem simpler than it should. Director Michael Samuels and writer Simon Block are interested in how children begin to trust other people again. Friendship and creative activity give them ways to express themselves without having to explain everything they have endured. It is a patient approach, and mostly the right one for a subject that hardly needs additional dramatic force.
Thomas Kretschmann as Oscar Friedmann, Romola Garai as Marie Paneth and Iain Glen as Jock Lawrence give the adult side of the story a reassuring steadiness. The younger cast supplies the uncertainty that keeps it from becoming too comfortable. Marek Wroblewski’s Schmuel ‘Sam’ Laskier and Pascal Fischer’s Benyak ‘Ben’ Helfgott belong to an ensemble whose company matters more than a single commanding performance. We want more time with these children, even when the film seems satisfied that we have understood them.
We were moved by the children’s efforts to find friends, because the film takes that need seriously rather than using it as a brief relief from suffering. Creative activity also gives them something to do besides explain themselves to an attentive adult. These are sensible dramatic choices, and Simon Block is strongest when he allows recovery to remain tentative. The children have already been through enough without having to deliver a speech that neatly explains what the audience should learn.
Ashleigh Jeffers’s production design helps establish an atmosphere of protection, and Alex Baranowski’s music encourages our sympathy. Both serve the film’s wish to show that care can make a difference, and neither distracts from the performers. The difficulty is that the surrounding comfort sometimes gets ahead of the children, making recovery feel more orderly than the performances suggest. We would have preferred less reassurance, especially when the young cast is already doing the emotional work.
Victoria Boydell’s editing keeps the ensemble manageable within 88 minutes, but the film’s breadth has a cost. Attention is divided among enough people that a developing attachment can feel interrupted by the need to check in elsewhere. Simon Block gives us a group whose recovery we care about, yet some individuals remain less distinct than they deserve to be. A narrower focus would have given the young performers more room, particularly when a relationship has begun to interest us.
We do not think the answer would have been a harsher film simply to prove that the subject has been taken seriously. A drama about children who have survived the Holocaust is entitled to show the help they receive, and to take pleasure in friendship. Michael Samuels earns much of the hopefulness through the young ensemble. The weaker passages are those in which the film makes us feel secure before we are persuaded that the children do. See it for the young cast, who deserve as much attention as the familiar names.
Griffiths finds the factual drama profoundly moving and emotionally forceful. Its account of child Holocaust survivors is singled out for its emotional impact.
Read the full review →Law finds the drama and accompanying documentary devastating and considers the feature-length drama superb. She especially praises its sensitive portrayal of the children’s gradual recovery through care, friendship and creative expression.
Read the full review →The review finds the drama poignant and hopeful, while condemning the contrast between the welcome given to these children and Britain’s treatment of child refugees today. It singles out the real survivors appearing at the end as the most powerful and unexpectedly optimistic moments.
Read the full review →Hawksley finds the film too cosy and narratively diffuse to convey the Holocaust’s horrors. He praises the young performers and the moving final minutes featuring people whose experiences inspired the film.
Read the full review →
The Search · not reviewed yetAnother post-war drama attentive to displaced children and the difficult business of trust.
Au revoir les enfantsChildhood friendship under occupation, handled with restraint and close attention to daily life.
The Quiet GirlPatient care changes a child’s life, with little need for explanatory speeches.
Nobody KnowsA tougher watch, equally alert to children’s resourcefulness and their need for adults.
Monsieur Lazhar · not reviewed yetA classroom drama about grief, displacement and the limits of well-meaning adult help.
Free account
Two lists that know where things are streaming, collections you can share, your own score beside ours, and Discover that remembers what you have seen.
