***What happens in Hungary when the Wehrmacht invades in 1944***

The postscript of the movie says that it “was inspired by the courage of Pinchas Rosenbaum whose passports and rescue missions saved thousands of lives. His family was murdered in Auschwitz along with 500,000 Hungarian Jews.”

So, this is a variation of the “Schindler’s List” story set in the Budapest area. As such, don’t look for a typical WW2 movie with big battle sequences as it’s a behind-the-scenes mix of drama, suspense, war action and tragedy. Comparisons include films like “Charlotte Gray,” “Anthropoid,” “The Pianist” and “Defiance,” even “Inglorious Basterds” to a degree, although I’d rank it with the lesser ones, like “Charlotte Gray” or “Defiance.”

I’ve heard some scoff at how easily the protagonist Elek Cohen (Jonas Armstrong) impersonates an SS officer, but Rosenbaum actually did this in real-life, as well as other disguises. You’d have to be a natural actor to pull it off, of course, but he obviously had the gift and the gonads to do so.

I shouldn’t fail to add that Hannah Tointon is a plus on the feminine front.   

The tightened streaming version runs 1h 54m with the theatrical version running 10 minutes longer, the latter being released on physical media. It was initially shot in 2009 with reshoots done in 2010 and later additions in 2011-2013, such as the governmental storyline featuring Ben Kingsley. Filming was done at Castel Film Studios, which is located a dozen mile north of Bucharest, as well a church in Biertan, which is a 3½-hour drive northwest of the studio in the heart of Romania. These are good locations since Hungary borders Romania to the northwest.

GRADE: B/B-