The Holocaust has generated a long list of feature films, and Remembrance, unfolding in Polish, German and English, is one of the latest ones. Now available on the Netflix streaming network, it takes place in the past and the present, cutting back and forth in time.
Based on a true story by Jerzy Bielecki, Remembrance shifts between a Nazi concentration camp in 1944 and New York City in 1976. The director, Anna Justice, weaves the two separate strands into a seamless mosaic.
Tomasz Limanowski (Mateusz Damiecki), a captured member of the Polish resistance movement, supervises the distribution of bread in an unnamed German camp. But his most important task, a clandestine one which he performs on behalf of the Polish underground, is to take photographs of Nazi war crimes that will be smuggled to the outside world.
Tomasz, a Catholic, is in love with a fellow inmate, Hannah Silberstein (Alice Dwyer), a German Jew. They share intimate moments whenever possible.
The film races ahead to 1970s New York City, where Hannah, now an American citizen, (Dagmar Manzel) lives with her husband and grown daughter. While doing an errand, she catches a glimpse of a man being interviewed on television. She strongly suspects he’s Tomasz (Lech Mackiewicz). The suspicion unnerves and preoccupies her because she had always assumed Tomasz had been killed during the war. She calls the Red Cross to make inquiries about him.
Remembrance doubles back to the camp. Tomasz, having hatched a scheme to escape, dresses up in a Gestapo uniform and literally walks out to freedom with Hannah, who’s pregnant. Making their way through a forest, with a German patrol in hot pursuit, they reach Tomasz’s hometown. His mother, Stefania (Susanne Lothar), is overjoyed to see him again, but unhappy to hear that Hannah is Jewish.
Ordered to Warsaw, Tomasz promises to return in a few days. After he leaves, his antisemitic mother tries to betray Hannah. Recognizing Stefania’s perfidy, she finds shelter with Magdalena (Joanna Kulig), Tomasz’s decent sister.
Backtracking to New York City yet again, the film resumes where it left off. Hannah, having been informed by the Red Cross that Tomasz lives in Poland, calls him. Hannah’s husband, at first annoyed by her obsessive desire to contact Tomasz, finally urges her to meet him in Poland.
Boasting a fine cast, Remembrance strikes the right note and is never mawkish. It’s a workmanlike film about a terrible era that brought out the worst and the best qualities in people.