AndyBrotherton I stumbled across this film by accident. And boy am I glad I did. I was hooked from the very start. A superbly made film. A great script, story and camera work. And the lighting is very good.The story is about a lot of Jewish people living in a ghetto during the 2nd word war in Lithuania. The main plot confuses you with the story of a German officer,who you can't tell or not is trying to save the Jews in the Ghetto. He was/is an artist and so he is drawn to the Jewish artists within the ghetto. They form a theatre while the Russians get ever closer to liberating them. And well I won't say any more and won't spoil it for anyone. Just watch it. It is an awesome film.

Elle Sa A different and unusual take on the holocaust. "Ghetto" is almost a dark comedy-musical, if you had to put it into a category ( if such a category exists...) I don't think it's fair to compare it to "The Pianist" or "Schindler's List", because this film really does it's own thing. Not everyone's cup of tea, but then I wouldn't really consider this a mainstream film. There were elements which really brought Yiddish theater to mind, in a clumsily beautiful and poignant way. I was appropriately entertained, moved and depressed, so I enjoyed this movie very much, but again, not everyone would want a movie to elicit that combination of emotions. There were some very beautiful scenes, in terms of cinematography, and despite some distracting, less than natural lip-synching, I found the music really beautiful. This film is worth watching, as long as you do so with an open mind and an appreciation for originality.

Claudio Carvalho In 1942, in Vilna, the Nazi annihilate 55,000 Jews and squeeze the 15,000 survivors in a seven blocks ghetto. The twenty-two year old sadistic commander Kittel (Sebastian Hülk) is assigned to administrate the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania, becoming the master of life or death. When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah (Erika Marozsán) sneaking with one kilo of beam stolen from the German army, he sentences her to death; but when he is informed that she was a former successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote shows in the ghetto. The Jew Chief of Police Gens (Heino Ferch) uses the theater and a sewing factory to save as much lives as he can; in his ambiguous position, he kills Jews to save lives of others."Ghetto" is an impressively cruel and depressive movie. The first point that impresses the viewer is certainly the cruelty and sadism of Kittel. Sebastian Hülk has an awesome performance in the role of the despicable Kittel and deserved a nomination to the Oscar. The screenplay does not spare the reality of the lives of the dwellers of this ghetto and their fight to survive in times of war, including the beginning of their resistance. However, it does not show the final destruction of the ghetto after a failed uprising on 01 September 1943 organized by the first Jewish partisan unit in Nazi-occupied Europe (the "Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje" - the United Partisan Organization). The beauty of Erika Marozsán and the dramatic and conflictive position of Gens brilliantly performed by Heino Ferch, are also amazing. The music score gives a touch of class to this great Lithuanian production. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Ghetto"

anastasia_ks I saw this movie in Mexico City, of all places, on Cinemax. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, but I think that's why I liked it so much. You were never sure who to trust; who was good and who was bad (though, obviously, the Nazis were easy to categorize as the bad guys). The movie is really about Gens and the position he is in between the Nazis and the Jews. It really isn't clear whether he does the right thing; indeed, it isn't clear that there IS a right thing to do. In this way I thought the movie was more three-dimensional than "The Pianist," in which we know that our hero is an innocent victim. Here, Gens could be an innocent victim or he could be a ruthless opportunist. Or he could be both. In my opinion, that is what makes a character interesting. What impressed me the most about this movie, however, was the music. Please, if anyone could find a soundtrack for it, let me know. It was a great combination of opera, swing, and tango, and captured the passion and drama of the times. While it could be argued that "The Pianist" was, in Adrian Brody's own words, about how a man's love of music saved him during horrible times, that movie had almost NO music at all. This movie is a much better illustration of the theme of music and art being mankind's salvation.To me, a good movie is one that makes me think, one that rattles around in my head long after it ends. This movie passes the test, as I've been thinking of it on and off for several days. Yes, it is an odd blend of humor, drama, and horror, but I thought its uniqueness and depth made it a great film.