Introduction

A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth.

Outline

In the aftermath of WWII, somewhere in the muddy Mississippi Delta, two families – one black, the Jacksons, and the other white, the McAllans – are forced to share the same patch of land, keeping a frail race-based peace with each other.

However, as they both struggle with hardship and dire poverty, the long-awaited return of two war veterans–Ronsel, the Jacksons’ eldest son, and Jamie, Henry McAllan’s younger brother–will unexpectedly nurture a budding friendship that transcends prejudice and race.

But, in the end, against a backdrop of fevered Mississippi sunsets and vitriolic racism, life can be hard when the law of the land is still segregation and hatred. And then, no one can be safe.

Trivia & Goofs

• The film met with a lukewarm reception in its native Germany, with the local media being less than complementary about it. The German Oscar selection committee did not even include it as a submission for that year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Much embarrassment ensued when it went on to become one of the most successful German films ever released in the US, winning a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
• The movie was shot simultaneously in English and German.
• Julie Delpy did not speak German and performed her role in English and was later dubbed over.
• At one point Salomon narrowly misses being killed in an air-raid, which kills his roommate. Rather than show a World War II aircraft, or even a bomber, stock footage shows a single C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, which was not even designed until many years after the war.
• When Salomon rides his bike through the sheet of glass he cycles on past the shoe shiner, in the next shot he has fallen off his bike lying in the glass 6-8 feet in front of the shoe shiner.
• When the Russian refugees are fleeing Poland and are strafed by a German fighter plane, the fighter plane is obviously a smaller scale radio controlled model. The aircraft resembles a Supermarine Spitfire, an aircraft not used by the Germans.

Production & Filming Details

• Directer: Agnieszka Holland.
• Writers: Agnieszka Holland.
• Based on: Solomon Perel (memoir: Ich war Hitlerjunge Salomon)
• Release Date: 15 May 1992 (UK).
• Running time: 112 minutes.
• Country: UK.
• Language: English.

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