lanzarishi I have just written 25 emails telling all of my closest friends to see this movie. It is the greatest documentary I have ever seen. I am in a state of shock at how moving this film is. Enough cannot be said to anyone connected with this film. I bow to all of you. This man Kurt Gerron should be praised and honored in no way that has been done before. Although he might be looked at as collaborating with the Nazi's as one narrator has stated, anyone else in his position would have done the same in his shoes and whoever says they wouldn't is a liar! What it must have been like to be in that place I can only guess but whoever had to live through that period (if they did survive) I personally owe a debt of gratitude to for bringing to life this documentary. PLEASE SEE THIS FILM!

MartinHafer I saw most of this documentary a few years a when it aired on TV. I was fascinated--especially since I'd never heard of Kurt Gerron--but also because it was so well-made. Now that it's on Netflix, I decided to watch it once again and I am glad I did.When the program begins, unless you knew better, you'd assume it's a documentary about the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt. And, while much of the film is about this, the actual focus is on one particular resident of this bizarre 'model camp'--Kurt Gerron. Gerron was a movie star and director who was perhaps the most famous man in the camp. How he came to be there as well as a summation of his career makes up the first portion of the film. I liked this since I didn't know who he was and seeing and hearing about his amazing career was very interesting and set the stage for the second half of the film--inside the camp and the Nazi demand that HE document camp life on film to make it look like a paradise. This part of the documentary was a bit surreal--with the Nazis creating a 'nice' camp in order to prove to international authorities how well the Nazis were caring for the Jews!! But there was also an odd niceness about the camp, in some ways, that made it bearable--to a point.Overall, the film is naturally depressing--after all it was the Holocaust and Gerron did not eventually survive. But its quality is hard to deny--with lots of interviews, archival footage, photos and paintings. It just screamed QUALITY throughout. Too bad, then, that although nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary that it did not win.Now I am sure I'll ruffle a few feathers in saying this, but I don't think the Michael Moore film ("Bowling for Columbine") should have even been nominated as I wouldn't consider it a documentary due to its attempt not so much to report facts but change and distort things to make his point. Now I am NOT criticizing this--and perhaps it should have been nominated for Best Picture. But there were many who also felt its style and lack of any objectivity made it anything but a documentary. I am not saying "Prisoner of Paradise" should have won (perhaps one of the other nominees was better), but it should have been beaten by a film that was entered in the proper category.

alexduffy2000 "Prisoner of Paradise" is like no other Holocaust documentary that I've ever seen. It is an amazing true story.SPOILERS AHEADThis movie is really a film about a film. The film is "Theresienstadt", the 1944 Nazi Propaganda film directed by German Jew Kurt Gerron. Gerron was a German comedic actor who lost everything due to Nazi persecution, and he eventually ended up in Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. The Nazis asked him to make a movie showing how Theresienstadt was a utopia built by Hitler for the Jews. The central question of this movie is: Should Gerron have said "No" or "Yes" to the Nazis? Surely if he had said "No" it would have meant a ride to Auschwitz on the next transport. But by saying "Yes" he would be a tool of the Nazis, and making the film in no way would guarantee his survival. What should he do? Gerron makes "Theresienstadt" for the Nazis. As soon as Gerron finishes making the film for the Nazis, almost all of the cast is sent to Auschwitz and gassed on 11 consecutive transports. Gerron is put on the 11th transport, and murdered with gas on the day he arrives in Auschwitz.Gerron receives equal parts condemnation and praise for making "Theresienstadt". Condemnation for selling out to the murderers of his own people. Praise for trying to survive the Nazis by any means necessary. But I think that maybe Gerron knew they were all doomed, and he knew this might be the only record of his fellow Jewish inmates before their end. So he films laughing teenaged girls, young men playing soccer, inmates putting on a play, and everybody was having fun, smiling, in this "utopia" Hitler built for the Jews. Of course you never see the SS guards with machine guns.In the end, Gerron beat the Nazis at their own game. Gerron shows the HUMANITY of Hitler's Jewish captives, the humanity Hitler sought to deny. How young so many of them were. How much they really wanted to live! But everyone of them is forced to wear the yellow star, which is their death sentence. It makes the horror of the Holocaust clearer than any stacks of dead, emaciated corpses, because this film show What Might Have Been. Everyone of these teenaged girls could have become a doctor, homemaker, anything... and they were all murdered (or most of them) for the sake of a crazy ideology."Prisoner of Paradise" is a very haunting film. It ranks with Claude Lanzmann's 9 1/2 hour "Shoah" as a landmark Holocaust film. It made me realize that it's not just the injustice of genocide that's so terrible, it's the human potential that is lost. So many young people who could have done something with their lives, and they never got the chance. This film will make you think.

myschrec Any documentary about a successful Berlin Cabaret performer, film actor and film director is the exciting and creative world of pre-WWII Germany -- who performed with Weill, Brecht, Marlene Dietrich, etc -- would be in itself unique and fascinating. This documentary certainly fulfills that expectation. In addition, it is the sad, tragic story of how a great artist was hounded and dehumanized by the Nazis. Finally, it is the incredible story of how the Nazis coerced Kurt Gerron to direct one of its most outrageous propaganda films to try to show the world that the Terezin Concentration Camp was a paradise for Jews sent to live in the "east." The reality was that Terezin was a squalid, overcrowded transit camp -- where many died from disease -- and tens of thousands were transported to Auschwitz (and other camps) to be murdered. In the end, Gerron was coerced to face the ethical dilemna that the Nazis posed to all their prisoners: "As long as you help us, we have a reason to keep you alive -- so ... How soon do you want to die?"Did Gerron make the film because he was selfishly trying to save himself and his family? If so ... so what? Wouldn't you have done that? On the other hand, it is even more tragic to think that Gerron probably knew that the Nazis would never let him live -- and that this was his last chance to work -- to be creative -- to be a "macher" -- to have a modicum of control over his life. Like all great artists, he did not want to produce anything less than his best. Certainly, many of the "actors" in the film were forced to pretend to be happy. On the other hand, when you see children eating bread and butter joyfully -- and you know that they would not have such food were it not for this film -- you can imagine that perhaps they were not pretending to enjoy the food. Similarly, the chorale group, the children's musical, and the symphony (performing "Study for Strings," written by Pavel Haas while he was incarcerated in Terezin) were not "pretending." They were enthusiastically displaying their love for their art and their pride of accomplishment. The Nazis should be vilified for their treatment of these artists. But the artists have nothing to be ashamed of.The film raises more questions than it answers. And some of the answers it suggests may not be convincing. But that is another reason why this film is deeply moving and valuable.This is an extremely well-made documentary -- excellently preserving much archival film footage. Ian Holm is an outstanding narrator. And the moments we see Gerron's acting and hear his singing are likely to encourage you to want to rent several of his films. Nominated for the 2003 Oscar -- amongst Spellbound, Winged Migration and Bowling for Columbine -- this film is further evidence that today's documentary film makers are among the best creative artists in the cinema.