Defiance: From Real Life to the Big Screen

10 months ago 08th Jan 16:04

The release of Defiance sees the continuing of the series of war movies that are line up to play at cinemas on the run up to the Oscars. Last week Kate Winslet's Holocaust drama reached UK cinemas and there's still Valkyrie and Good to come.

But with Defiance Daniel Craig gets to flex his acting muscles and show everyone that there's more to him than the suave, sophistication and action sequences of the James Bond franchise that has propelled him to worldwide fame and acclaim.

Based on the extraordinary true story, and slightly forgotten story of the Second World War, Defiance follows the Bielski brothers - three young, Jewish, working-class farmers from the remote countryside of Belarus, Daniel Craig (Tuvia), Liev Schriber (Zus) and Jamie Bell (Asael).

A series of devastating tragedies followed in quick succession as the Bielskis’ parents and many beloved family members (including Tuvia’s infant daughter and wife) were killed in a mass execution of 4,000 Jews in the Novogrudok ghetto.

The year is 1941 and the Jews of Eastern Europe are being massacred by the thousands. Managing to escape certain death the brothers take refuge in the dense surrounding woods they have known since childhood. But gradually, as whispers of their daring spreads, they begin to attract others, men and women, young and old, willing to risk everything for the sake of even a moment’s freedom.

While they form a resistance and attempt to fight back it's a story that few people have heard first coming to light, if only momentarily, when, in 1944 at the war’s end, local Gentiles witnessed an astounding, almost surreal sight: more than 1200 Jews suddenly emerging from the deep woods.

But after the war the Bielskis' story was almost as the brothers returned to their lives Tuvia and Zus moved to Israel and then on to America where they were taxi-drivers and truck drivers. It was only after Tuvia’s death in 1987, as researchers began exploring the history and their story became better known.