Tonight on TV: This Holocaust comedy-drama is inspired by a moving true story

And what The forger ?

In 2022, the German director Maggie Peren chooses for her new feature film, The forgerto tell an episode from the life of Samson “Cioma” Schönhaus, based on his autobiography published in 2007. This German Jew, born in September 1922 in Berlin and died in September 2015 in Biel-Benken in Switzerland, is part of these dark heroes who , with their skills and their few means, contributed to saving hundreds of lives during the Second World War.

“Cioma” had a gift for drawing and graphics, disciplines of which he made his profession after the war in Switzerland, where he settled after escaping from Berlin in 1943. But he put his skills to good use before carrying out the “official” work ”. During the war, a brilliant forger, he actually produced hundreds of false documents and passports to allow large numbers of Jews to escape the Gestapo and the disastrous fate reserved for them by Nazi forces. While protecting themselves with several false identities.

In Berlin in 1942, when his family was deported, the young Jew Cioma Schönhaus (Louis Hoffmann) works in an arms company where he was forcibly conscripted. Having left his art studies in the lurch, Cioma still uses his talent as a designer to forge documents – particularly passports – which allow him to survive and prevent others from being deported. Thanks to his ingenuity and audacity, he repeatedly escapes the authorities and tries to continue living as he wishes, without hiding, adapting to circumstances. With his friend Det (Jonathan Berlin), he pretends to be a soldier and goes to a dance party. Cioma then falls in love with a young woman (Luna Wedler) who is not fooled by his lies…

A film against genre

What is told is therefore a completely true story The forger, with a story that is nothing short of surprising. The horror of the context, in fact, is left off-screen, and the representation of the clandestine and dangerous activity of “Cioma” is often accompanied by light and cheerful melodies. This biopic thus establishes an emotional and touching portrait of this very young man, whose benevolence and optimism seem invincible, while worry, seriousness and paranoia spread around him.

The forger it is therefore destabilizing, because it refuses to use the iconography and dramatic codes associated with cinema dealing with the Second World War and the Holocaust. No boot stomping or exploitation of Nazi symbols, no violence or death on screen, but a camera focused on a character fighting to save her life and the lives of others.

But under this light note on which it develops The forger, the Holocaust is here. This can be seen in tense situations in which “Cioma” doubles her audacity so as not to be discovered. He is out there, behind the windows of the interior where almost the entire film takes place. Even there, when “Cioma” witnesses, in a terrible scene, the arrest of her best friend… This subtle staging by Maggie Peren may have left some of the audience perplexed. But she gives this film a unique character, rejecting every temptation to do so a direct spectacle of tragedy which acts as a background The forger.

Source: Cine Serie

Ray

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