‘Walk with the Enemy’ a haunting Holocaust movie

“Walk with the Enemy” has not, as of this writing, come to our town. I found it in North Attleboro and read the reviews on Google. The critics panned it as trite and naïve. I beg to differ!  I found this strange and haunting visual version of an actual event a remarkable reminder of 1944, when Eichmann, in the last season of World War II, in Budapest, Hungary, intensified the mass murder of half a million Jews. 

At the time, there was a young man, Elek, who saved his romantic friend from rape by murdering a Gestapo officer.  He buries his victim under the floor of his apartment, but then digs up the corpse and dons the Nazi uniform. In this disguise, he is able to stop the deportations and rescue and redeem many, many, otherwise doomed fellow Jews. 

But it is never enough: his family members are gassed or shot, and although he protected some of his friends, he suffers from guilt about the loss of others.

The movie ends on a poignant note. He marries the girl he saved, they adopt one of the orphans of the tragedy, and later celebrate their wedding in post-war New York. 

Elek tells us the story, but the director, story-teller, Mark Schmidt, has already depicted it with vigor but also with restraint. 

I wrote this salute to “Walk with the Enemy” because it is an admirable, effective effort, forceful and sincere, and, in the best and highest sense, “amateur.” The film is made with thoughtful artistry and honest commitment and without unnecessary or arbitrary violence. 

The virtues of this film are many, and it is vulgar of movie critics to write it off with condescension and disdain. They missed the point: The Nazis and the Arrow Cross collaborators were unbelievably cruel, while the heroes of the era were equally unbelievably  humane and brave.  

This critic prides himself on being an anti-sentimentalist, and yet I was genuinely moved by the authentic skill of all who participated in this underrated production. This includes actor Ben Kingley, who brings to a cameo role of the Regent Horthy just the right note of stiff pride, a sense of proportion, and personal agony. 

MIKE FINK (mfink33@aol.com) teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design.