User Reviews

A Swedish account of the horrors lived by Nina Rajmic, a Polish Jew, during WWII, is the subject of this sometimes engrossing tale about a courageous woman who saw her life change as the German troops invaded her country. Director Lena Einhorn's tribute to the courageous doctor has an added bonus. The real Nina Rajmic narrates various chapters of her story, as an introduction, in a real interview she gave prior to the actual production of the film.

Basically, it is a story that has been told, with different variations by other filmmakers in which the struggle to survive became such a difficult process the viewer becomes numb watching what families had to endure in order to survive the hatred of their race by madmen that felt threatened by them, because there is no logical explanation about the crimes they committed during a shameful period of history during the middle of the last century.

The film tells the story of a courageous Nina, who saw most of her family die during that nefarious time when madness overtook over over human decency. The cast is Polish. Agnieszka Grochowska plays the young Nina. Most of the players are unknown to us. Lena Einhorn using newsreel footage mixes it with the narrative as well as with Nina's own account of her life and her survival. Sadly, Nina did not get to see what director Einhorn reenacted version of her story, for she died prior to the making of the film.

A moving film that speaks volumes about human cruelty.

"Ninas resa" or "Nina's Journey" is a co-production between Poland and Sweden from 2005, so this one is already way over a decade old. it was written and directed by Lena Einhorn and apparently, it is also her most recent filmmaking effort despite all the time that has passed. i read somewhere that she is a successful doctor. These two hours here are a pretty personal work for her as the focus is on the life of her mother and how she survived in the ghetto back during the days of World War II. Her mother was already dead for a while when this film came out, but nonetheless she is the narrator in here telling her own story, which is re-enacted with professional actors. As a consequence, it is also Einhorn's most known work. Honestly, this does not say too much as it was not too great of a watch. It felt a bit like the equivalent of a what a Nazi-themed film (Holocaust themed film) would look like if it had been made for the small screen for Lifetime or so, even if this was a big screen release I think. In terms of the characters, I never found it too interesting and what is maybe the worst is that it also came short on the emotional side and I cannot say I was ever really touched despite the actors trying their best to achieve this emotional impact. We meet several characters living in the ghetto, but there is also focus on other things like family struggles and romance and it is really more of a biopic for the most part than a Nazi-themed movie. At least that's what it felt like to me. The focus is always on Nina and, to a lesser extent, on the people she meets during her journey. Anyway, as a whole, i cannot deny that this film had more than just a few moments and sequences where I felt it dragged and this was eventually a negative deal-breaker for me. I think it's not a bad film by any means, but it adds very little to the infinite genre of films about that era in history, if anything at all. That's why I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended. It's okay for the Einhorn's family album, but not really of significance for anybody else.