Cinema: The Last Days

An elderly man tells his grandchildren a primal tale of abduction and escape. It could be a Steven Spielberg film, and is: Spielberg served as executive producer of this expertly assembled memoir of the Holocaust years. Five Hungarian Jews, including California Congressman Tom Lantos (the grandfather), recount their near death adventures with passion and great storytelling skill. A woman recalls thinking that the Nazis had robbed her of family, money, dignity–“but they’re not gonna take my soul.” That collective soul lives on here.

–R.C.