Train de Vie

"Train of life", which it literally is in this movie, is probably one of those rare, very rare stories that succeed in creating humour out of the holocaust. I usually associate movies with the war in the background as very emotional, gory, etc. Movies that i watched regularly have conditioned my mind so, i guess.. Well, the previous movies based on the world war that i saw were Der Untergang and The Pianist, masterpieces in their own domains of creativity, yet the of-course-you-gotta-be-sad feel in them.. This one defies all that.. And how! It was ar=ired on TV5 sometime during september.
The story is about a religious, peace-loving, merry little French shtetl (Jewish village) which comes to know about the onset of the Nazis in the formative years of the oncoming holocaust.. and how they manage to flee...
Shlomo is the vilage idiot who finds out by sheer chance about the newly established military government's move over the jews in the nazi empire. Upon his word, village is thrown into pandemonium and fear, because they knew not how bad the situation actually is. The village rabbi however listens to Shlomo and on holding a council, decides that the best way to escape is to flee the country to Jerusalem in a train, a creaking old dead-wagon which they refurnish to look like as though they are coming from a jewish evacuation and are being taken to their deaths.. The train is commanded by a SS look-alike, Mordechai from their own village, who is taught to speak german.
The entire journey is completed as comfortable as possible for the villagers, while outside that train in the darkening world around them, it started to rain jewish blood.. and jews suffered.
Soon the uncharted train raises suspicion as it passes along the various stations en route ("Stations?? What stations?", the villagers ask. They don't have the slightest clue about trains!). The military soon steps into action and deploys enquiry posts along.. Mordechai however manages to make the officers believe that these jews are "special" ones and are being transported under direct orders from the Fuhrer himself!. There obviously will be no schedules prescribed for such a secret mission..
The germans thus end up providing complete security and right of way to a train carrying jews in comfortable coaches to their safety out of the country.. to Jerusalem..
There are plenty of scenes where i just culdn't help falling off my couch, laughing.. like for example the scene where the SS look-alike soldiers from the village observe sabbath on the way, and a anti-nazi activist faints on seeing the "soldiers" bowing and praying along with their jews.. Others include a scared Mordechai who fumbles while performing the nazi salute and shows his palm to the SS officer!
The last scene however is both scary and jubiliant as they cross the border and get scared, mistaking the russian soldiers for german troops...