MOVIE REVIEW : Struggle of Danish Jews in ‘October’

Intimate and well-acted, “A Day in October” (selected theaters) sheds light on an uplifting aspect of the Holocaust era that is not nearly as well known as it ought to be.

Thanks to Anne Frank and her immortal diary, the world has been told of the plight of Holland’s Jews and of the Dutch Gentiles who tried to protect them. Far less familiar is the far happier fate of Denmark’s Jews. Aided by the heroic, determined, highly unified Gentile majority, some 7,200 of a total of 8,000 Danish Jews made their way to neutral Sweden. Only about 484 were arrested; 51 of the approximately 450 transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia died in camp.

Writer Damian F. Slattery and director Kenneth Madsen, a native Dane and now a New York-based commercials-maker in his feature debut, tell the story of Denmark’s Jews during World War II through the fate of the fictional Kublitz family of Copenhagen. Solidly middle class and religious, the Kublitzes live in a comfortable (rather than elegant or stylish) home. Solomon Kublitz (Daniel Benzali) is a bookkeeper at a radio factory, his wife, Emma (Tovah Feldshuh), keeps house.

Their pretty teen-age daughter Sara (Kelly Wolf) discovers a wounded, unconscious resistance fighter, Niels (D.B. Sweeney), on her way home one evening; her instinctive decision to try to save his life transforms her family. Ironically, in endangering her life and those of her parents, Sara actually increases the possibilities for their survival through contact with the courageous Niels and his fellow members of the Danish Resistance.

Understandably, Sara’s parents are terrified at the prospect of sheltering Niels and nursing him back to health, yet they cannot bring themselves to turn their backs on him. “These last three years we have been left alone for the most part,” remarks Solomon. But now it is September, 1943, and the word (which in fact was leaked by a shipping attache in the German embassy) is spreading that the German army of occupation is about to arrest all Danish Jews on Oct. 1, the eve of Rosh Hashana.

The first part of “A Day in October” is its strongest. A carefully detailed and totally persuasive period piece, it is very effective in showing the Kublitzes gradually overcoming great and justifiable fear to assert themselves on their own behalf as well as on behalf of Niels. In doing so, it elicits the feeling that the Kublitizes are a real family.

Feldshuh and Benzali create a fully drawn middle-age married couple, unglamorous but doughty and intelligent, devoted to each other, settled yet more capable of bravery and daring than they could at first possibly imagine. Sara and Niels are less distinctive, yet their predictable mutual attraction is presented with more realism than sentimentality.

Unfortunately, Madsen and Slattery are not nearly as good at building suspense as they are in illuminating character and relationships. There’s a lull in the middle of the film, and although the film recovers, it does not begin to realize its legitimate dramatic potential for a thrilling, edge-of-the-seat finish. Made with a clearly impassioned sense of commitment, “A Day in October” (rated PG-13 for some violence) is a decent movie. However, since the last 15 or 20 years have brought us so many remarkable Holocaust films, that’s really not enough to hope to attract much of an audience.

‘A Day in October’

D.B. Sweeney: Niels Jensen

Kelly Wolf: Sara Kublitz

Tovah Feldshuh: Emma Kublitz

Daniel Benzali: Solomon Kublitz

A Castle Hill release of a Kenmad/Panorama Fiilm International production. Director Kenneth Madsen. Producers Just Betzer, Philippe Rivier. Executive producer Pernille Siesbye. Screenplay by Damian F. Slattery. Cinematographer Henning Kristiansen. Editor Nicolas Gaster. Costumes Lotte Dandanell. Music Jens Lysdal, Adam Gorgoni. Production design Sven Wichmann. Set decorator Torben Baekmark Pedersen. Sound Stig Sparre-Ulrich. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (for some violence).