Forced March

2013 • 100 mínútur

Um þessa kvikmynd

Ben Kline is a successful television actor desperate for a meaningful role to make him a movie star. When he sets out to play a hero who died in the Holocaust, he is forced to face the reality of those victimized by the war. In assuming the role of Miklos Radnoti, who left a notebook of harrowing poems from his ordeal, Ben finds the voice not of a hero, but rather one Jew who tried simply to survive against the rising tide, and now speaks to us from the grave. As he gets ever deeper into his role, he begins to merge with his character, blurring the boundaries of truth and illusion. And Ben's dilemma becomes how to act as Radnoti... as hero or victim... what legacy to leave in the minds of the audience. Because, for future generations, movies can become the truth.

Einkunnir og umsagnir

Most Holocaust-themed movies focus either on survivors (Sophie's Choice, The Pawnbroker) who struggle to deal with their past ordeal in flashbacks, or on those who tried something heroic or special (Schindler's List, The Great Escape). But this one, Forced March, is one of the few to speak for the victims... for those who tried to survive but couldn't... by focusing on the true story of Miklos Radnoti, Hungary's greatest poet, who was shot into a mass grave on a forced march but left a notebook of his harrowing poems written in 'real time' as he suffered through his last months. And by structuring the story through the eyes of a contemporary actor who thinks he's going to portray a hero, but instead finds the reality of a victim, the movie at once shows the difficulty in getting close enough to the horrors of that reality, and also makes the dilemma relevant for current & future generations... how would you have acted? Because, for most of us, what we see in movies can become the truth.