Train de vie (1998)
Directed by Radu Mihaileanu

Film Review

The late 1990s saw not just one but three films which sought to make light of the Holocaust, with varying degrees of success.  The most memorable was Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful (1997), which strikes just the right balance between pathos and comedy and is surprisingly easy to engage with.  The least successful was Peter Kassovitz's overly sentimental Jakob the Liar (1999), a Robin Williams offering which is probably best forgotten.  Somewhere in the artistic gulf between these two extremes lies a third, lesser known work, from the Rumanian-born director Radu Mihaileanu, Train de vie.

Like Benigni's film, Train de vie approaches the subject of the Holocaust in a way that feels, on the face of it, totally inappropriate.  It is a boisterous farce, very much in the French tradition, rejoicing in the vitality, humour and self-mockery of Jewish culture whilst portraying the Nazis as bland, ineffectual buffoons.  However, whereas Life is Beautiful achieves an intense poignancy by keeping us aware of what the Holocaust really was about and how much suffering was endured, this is almost totally absent from Mihaileanu's film.  Train de vie almost overlooks the Holocaust, or, at least, seems to have no idea of what it involved.  Instead, it seems to be exclusively occupied with Jews making fun of themselves.

Incredibly for a film which is meant to be about Jews fleeing from certain death at the hands of the Nazis, there is no sense of threat or fear.  This is the main reason why this is such a difficult film to stomach - it is hard to reconcile  one's own, albeit very limited understanding of the Holocaust, with the picture the film is presenting us with.  It just feels wrong, or at least naive.  To some extent, the balance is redressed in the film's devastatingly effective final shot, which provides a somewhat belated apology for the film's eccentric view of the Shoah.  If only Mihaileanu had managed to inject as much poignancy and humanity into the rest of the film, this would undoubtedly have been a masterpiece.  As it stands, the film feels more like a madcap Jewish version of La Grande vadrouille (1966), offering plenty of easy laughs, but lacking any real human feeling and depth.

Film Synopsis

In the summer of 1941, Schlomo "the fool" hastens back to his Jewish settlement in an East European country with the news that the Nazis are approaching.  To avoid being deported like their neighbours, the Jews agree to deport themselves, in a false convoy, with some of their number disguised as German soldiers. Their destination: Palestine.  Having assembled a train piece by piece, the Jews are soon ready to depart.  However, it isn't long before they are spotted by the real Nazis…