Zev, an elderly man living in a nursing home, has Alzheimer's disease. With the help of his friend Max, he embarks on a solo journey of revenge and a search for memories. As survivors of Auschwitz concentration camp, Zeev and Max find it is their long-cherished wish to find the jailer who killed their family. On the subject of war and reflection, killing and tolerance, there are many films, such as the two famous "Schindler's List" and "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas." This film is different in that it breaks away from the usual routines of this type of film and has a very beautiful reversal. The last ten minutes broadened the depth of the whole film: in a long life, how should a person carry a heavy history? To what extent does history affect a person's future, and can a political and cultural reckoning really lead to a person's redemption? Zev is in his old age and suffers from amnesia, which often confuses memory with reality. Losing painful memories may be a relief, but he insists on getting them back and getting infinitely closer to a truth that ultimately makes him unacceptable. Along the way, he met old men who had been in concentration camps for their homosexuality, as well as German fanatics who still believe in Nazism. Some hatred is so deep that even if a country tries its best to repay justice and set things right after the fact, it cannot eliminate the fire of evil. The memory of suffering defines the second half of a person's life in a way that is written into the genes. After watching the movie, I can't help but ask: Is Zev's amnesia active or passive? He kept lying to himself, and he actually lived in his own lies, how ridiculous and how sad. We often understand history in a simplistic and crude way: it is black and white, and good is rewarded with good and evil is rewarded with evil. We like to believe that a crime committed by a person may escape the punishment of the law, but ultimately cannot escape the condemnation of conscience. But is this really the case? Are our judgments for sin really as satisfying as we imagined? This movie should not be spoiled, because it is really a twisting story. Since spoilers ruin everything, let's talk about the tone. The Egyptian director seems to be particularly fond of pushing shots: starting with a panorama, then quickly pushing to a bust or a close-up of the face to interpret the character's rich expressions and complex relationships with his surroundings. This method seems to focus the audience's point of view eagerly on the protagonist, deepening the audience's surprise after the reversal, as well as the complex feelings of love and hate for this character. At the same time, the director did not hesitate to express Zev’s elegant musical taste with a large number of shots. On the one hand, he laid a foreshadowing to insinuate his true identity, and on the other hand, he also created a contradictory effect: the hands that played the piano and the hands that were once stained with blood hand , they come from the same hand. No one is completely sinful, just as no one is completely innocent. You can't really understand a person's heart without getting into a person's history. The film also has many shortcomings. For example, a 90-year-old man suffering from amnesia can travel far away smoothly, which is unrealistic. But the theme of the film has already made up for these small shortcomings in logic. In contrast to today's film market, we often lose the depth of expression in pursuit of exciting reversals and seemingly rigorous logic. Many movies have been watched and forgotten, like the one-off fast food popular in modern cities. But there are always some movies, just with a deep core, they can shine like gold coins in the dark channel of memory.
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