Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Bergin, James Bolam, Michael Byrne, Suzanna Hamilton, Heather Tobias
• Directors: Sren Kragh-Jacobsen
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: First Look Pictures
• DVD Release Date: April 1, 2008
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00116GEFM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,230 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

ISLAND ON BIRD STREET - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ROBINSON CRUSOE, SNOW AND WITS, March 7, 2009

By 

Loves To Read "Lu" (Twin Cities, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island on Bird Street (DVD)

Based on a true story during WWII in Warsaw, Poland, it is the survival of an eleven year old Jewish boy separated from his father and uncle who are taken to work camps, from which no one returns. He has three things to sustain him: his pet white mouse, Snow; the book Robinson Crusoe; the promise of his father that he will return. The Nazis regularly patrol the bombed out buildings in the ghetto looking for stray Jews who may have escaped their clutches. It's survival in its most basic form. This overlooked film tells the amazing story of the imagination and wits of this 11 year old as lives day to day trying to survive against all odds. Ala Robinson Crusoe, he establishes a loft for himself in a bombed out building and uses every instinct he has to stay alive and not get captured. A fascinating story and well done film. Great camera work and editing. The many twists and turns in the story will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Strong performance by Jordan Kiziuk as the 11 year old Alex.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moving tale of the will to survive, May 21, 2008

By 

Richard Street "Dreamster" (Dallas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island on Bird Street (DVD)

This almost feels like a foriegn film yet is in English and the actors have mixed accents. It is the story of a young Jewish boy in the getto areas of Warsaw during the German occupation of WWII. He is forced to become creative and resourseful to keep from being sent off to a concentration camp for a questionable fate. The mood and settings are very realistic and expertly filmed. The entire film takes place within a few block radius. Most of the ordeal the boy endures is written in facial expressions and sutle moments of joy and despair. The story is a moving testament to the human spirit in the midst of the atrocities of war. The sound track is classical in nature and builds slowly. The piano movements are as memorable as the violin solos of Shindler's List. A very nice piece of film making.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An island, indeed., May 23, 2006

By 

Naomi Schoenfeld (Nashua, NH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island on Bird Street (VHS Tape)

I normally shy away from Holocaust films. It seems somehow to belittle the experiences of those who lived through it, to sit in the comfort of my living room watching portrayals of their worst nightmares on a screen. But this intense, little-known film brings out all the horror with none of the gratuitous, and manages to be uplifting in the process.

The story is simple. A young Jewish boy, Alex, manages to hide during the forced emptying of his Polish ghetto during WWII - only to find himself trapped in the deserted ruins, which are walled off and landlocked within a bustling city. With little food or water, learning to avoid the patrols and other desperate escapees equally, he waits there, believing his father will come back for him.

Of special note are the few, but wonderfully rendered, exceptions to the Nazi brutality rule within the story - a soldier who, having hunted Alex into a corner, stares at the cowering boy and then turns and leaves; the reactions of a doctor outside the ghetto walls whom Alex resorts to for help.

This film deserves far more attention than it has received - at the very least, a DVD release.

A word of caution - despite the simplicity, this is no movie for children. The ugliness of the time and the hopelessness of Alex's situation is very real. Keep this gem reserved for the teenage crowd.