Product Details

• Format: NTSC, Color
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001RVKGBO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,628 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Adapted from Anne Michael's acclaimed prose-poem novel, FUGITIVE PIECES is a harrowing and haunting tale of Holocaust survival and personal awakening. The film opens in Poland, as young Jakob Berr (Robbie Kay) is hidden away just before German soldiers storm into his Jewish family's home. After watching his parents murdered and his sister dragged away to an uncertain fate, Jakob flees and hides in the woods. He is discovered by a kindly Greek archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia), who smuggles the sickly Jakob back to his own island home and hides him for the rest of the war. Years later, having moved to Canada, the grownup Jakob (Stephen Dillane) has become a writer struggling to articulate his childhood horrors, haunted by the mystery of his sister's fate. But after his troubled emotions lead to the breakup of his marriage to the free-spirited Alex (Rosamund Pike), Jakob must exorcise the ghosts of his past if he is to close a traumatic chapter of his life and find beauty in the present. Director Jeremy Podeswa (THE FIVE SENSES) ably shifts between the different stages of Jakob's life, showing how grief can continue to influence one's actions--or inaction--in the years that follow a tragedy. Handsomely shot and thoughtfully acted, FUGITIVE PIECES is a touching testimony to the power of remembrance and redemption

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling....Can't Wait To Read the Book...., March 4, 2009

By 

Lara (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fugitive Pieces (DVD)

I can't think of a better film in recent memory! Director Jeremy Podeswa does an amazing job in his attempt to captivate viewers by peering into the minds of these rich characters. Stephen Dillane, who plays Jakob, is his usual brilliant self and offers us a superior glimpse at profound acting at its best. I also found Ayelet Zurer, (Michala), a breath of fresh air. The film also inspired me to seek out more of Rade Sherbedgia who plays an important role opposite Stephen Dillane. He is engaging to watch with both Dillane and the younger actor who plays Dillane's character as a child. I'm looking forward to reading Anne Michael's book which the film is based upon, although the reviews I've read here on Amazon seem to relay a complex narrative/story structure. It's unfortunate the film's release was limited to Canada and a minimum number of cities in the US. I must recommend this film to everyone, especially Dillane fans and those who appreciate intelligent, poignant and provocative dialogue.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars explores the true process of healing and growth through love, November 3, 2010

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fugitive Pieces (DVD)

***spoiler alert***

This is an extraordinary gem that I feel lucky to have found. A boy witnesses the destruction of his family, but escapes with the help of a great man who happens to find him and smuggle him from an archaeological site in Poland all the way to Greece. Traumatized and deeply scarred, the boy grows up in the shadow of the war on a remote island, the man mentoring him in life and languages, surviving and deeply involved with the community of the villageat great danger to himself.

At the close of the war, they move to Canada, where they restart their lives. Just down the hall, the boy meets some other yiddish-speaking holocaust survivors and together they all form a kind of family. Though there are plenty of good holocaust films, nowhere have I seen its aftermath so well portrayed.

As he grows into an adult, the boy works hard to develop his talents as a writer, but he is tied to the past with an obsession with death, particularly that of his sister, who was dragged off by the Nazis. In his state of withdrawal, he allows a marriage (sadly a mismatch) to an exuberant beauty to wither and die, though it inspires him to return to Greece and begin a new phase of creative expression in memory and art. Nothing seems to overcome his introspective melancholy, until he is introduced to someone else and a new phase of his life begins, looking forward rather than backward. The beauty of this interior journey is a unique achievement.

Warmly recommended. This is art that approaches the complexity of life.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary, September 9, 2009

By 

Shopperinus Compulsicus (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fugitive Pieces (DVD)

Beautifully filmed, seamlessly directed. Extraordinary performances by the entire cast. A tremendously moving, powerful story that is both very sad but with great things to say as to the resilience of humanity, the power of goodness and hope, the importance of honesty and truth, and the need for courage and tenacity in the face of tragedy and war. This film to me was faultless, majestic, and yet proceeded with a lightness of touch that is rarely matched. One of the great films and one of the most wonderful films I have no doubt I will see in a long, long time.