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film review
Open this photo in gallery:

Ruth Arndt, played by Ruby Fee, and Ellen Lewinsky, played by Victoria Shultz, pose as Aryan war widows.Peter Hartwig/Tobias Film / Courtesy of Films We Like

  • The Invisibles
  • Directed by: Claus Rafle
  • Written by: Claus Rafle, Alejandra Lopez
  • Starring: Max Mauff, Alice Dwyer, Ruby Fee, Aaron Altaras
  • Classification: PG; 110 minutes

Rating:

3 out of 4 stars

No matter how many times one sees a film on the Holocaust, a sense of astonishment accompanies the horror. How could this possibly happen? Perhaps that is why German filmmaker Claus Rafle made The Invisibles the unique way in which he did.

The subtitled film, which tells the stories of four of the 7,000 Jews living illegally and frightened for their lives in Berlin during the Second World War, is part-feature film and part-documentary. So, we see an art student who uses his aptitude to forge official documents, and a young woman who dyes her hair blond to pass as Aryan.

Interwoven into the scripted presentation, director Rafle puts the four actual survivors in front of the camera, narrating the chilling stories of their younger selves. If that hybrid structure enforces the veracity, it also, unfortunately, inhibits the compelling suspense of the film. Still, the drama compels.

The ironic twist at the movie’s end is a nice touch. The Invisibles, about humans as living ghosts, needs to be seen, and believed.

The Invisibles opens April 5 in Ottawa and Toronto

Open this photo in gallery:

The Invisibles tells the stories of an art student who uses his aptitude to forge official documents and a young woman who dyes her hair blonde to pass as Aryan.Peter Hartwig/Tobias Film / Courtesy of Films We Like

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