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A True Story Of Bravery
1944 — Nazi Occupied Budapest
Elsa is an outgoing woman who tackles her daily tasks cheerfully, despite the fact that her husband has been taken away and her once friendly neighbors now behave with distrust. Even when she is absurdly arrested for deportation, her unquestioning co-operation and inability to consider a monstrously horrific reality demonstrate how millions of people were manipulated to their doom. Equally obedient, the disciplined German officers have orders to follow, which they efficiently execute with cold indifference. In this fateful climate, Elsa's naïve belief in human goodness is an ironic contrast to the unbelievably real human cruelty of the Holocaust.
Based on acclaimed author George Tabori's novel and play, this haunting and at times humorous film is a macabre snapshot in time of how his mother's simple act of quiet defiance evaded deportation to Auschwitz - and certain death.
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