A Jewish boy struggling to survive the Nazi pogrom during World War II finds an unexpected ally in this period drama. As Nazi troops invade Poland, a young boy from Krakow named Romek (Haley Joel Osment) is given to friends by his parents, who smuggle him out of town in hopes of saving him from the advancing armies. Romek is taken to a rural community, where a sympathetic farming family has agreed to put him up, under the pretense that he's a nephew whose parents have fallen ill. Thanks to his blonde hair and blue eyes, Romek is able to blend in with the largely Catholic townsfolk, though a few of the neighbors become quite suspicious when Romek appears not to know elementary prayers and church procedures. The priest (Willem Dafoe) of the neighborhood's church becomes aware of Romek's secret, and is sympathetic to the boy's problems, so in secret, he coaches Romek in basic catechism, while remaining mindful of the lad's Jewish heritage. But while Romek is getting better at fooling others into believing he's Catholic, he can't escape the signs of the devastation that the Nazi onslaught has wrought against his people. — Mark Deming
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Haley Joel Osment | Romek |
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Willem Dafoe | Priest |
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Richard Banel | Vladek |
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Liam Hess | Tolo |
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Olaf Lubaszenko | Gniecio |
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Malgorzata Foremniak | Manka |
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Andrzej Grabowski | Kluba |
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Chiril Vahonin | Robal |
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Olga Frycz | Maria |
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Dorota Piasecka | Ela Kluba |
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Wojciech Smolarz | Pyra |
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Marek Weglarski | Max |
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Edyta Jurecka | Sara |
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Ryszard Ronczewski | Batylin |
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Krystyna Feldman | Wanda |
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Eugene Osment | German Officer at Batylin Field |
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Krzysztof Pieczynski | German Officer at Trains |
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Stefania Wasko | Maria's Grandmonther |
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Marian Czekalski | Old Man With Limp |
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Aldona Grochal | Jewish Mother of Little Girl |
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Maria Andruszkiewicz | Jewish Woman |
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Ewa Braniecka | Jewish Little Girl |
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Jerzy Swiatlon | Leon - Escapee |
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Etl Szyc | Zyta - Escapee |
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Jerzy Gudejko | German Soldier on Bike #1 |
| Director | Yurek Bogayevicz |
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| Writer | Yurek Bogayevicz | |
| Producer | Zev Braun, Boaz Davidson, Danny Dimbort, Burton W. Kanter, Philip Krupp, Avi Lerner, Danny Lerner, Pinchas Perry, Trevor Short, Roni Ya'ackov, Iwona Ziulkowska-Okapiec | |
| Musician | Jan A.P. Kaczmarek | |
| Photography | Pawel Edelman | |
| Packaging | Keep Case |
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| Nr Discs | 1 |
| Screen Ratios | Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) |
| Audio Tracks | ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo |
| Subtitles | French | Spanish |
| Layers | Single side, Single layer |
| Edition Release Date | Jan 04, 2005 |
| Regions | 1 |