Life Is Beautiful

Plot: In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank.


This film is similar to my radio play in the way the males create illusions to protect the ones they love and care for from the horrors of the camps. It also tells the story of the Jews before, during and after the war and what the jewish families went through- even the children. 

Research: P.S I love you

Plot: Holly Kennedy is beautiful, smart and married to the love of her life - a passionate, funny, and impetuous Irishman named Gerry. So when Gerry's life is taken by an illness, it takes the life out of Holly. The only one who can help her is the person who is no longer there. Nobody knows Holly better than Gerry. So it's a good thing he planned ahead. Before he died, Gerry wrote Holly a series of letters that will guide her, not only through her grief, but in rediscovering herself. In the weeks and months that follow, more letters from Gerry are delivered in surprising ways, each sending her on a new adventure and each signing off in the same way; P.S. I Love You. Holly's mother and best friends begin to worry that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly tied to the past.


This movie links to my play through the way it is a story of two lovers who have a devastating end to their relationship. It is also similar through the way the males make plans to making life easier to their partners by writing letters and giving them a sense of hope and adventure with every one that is sent even though the people around them believe that it is keeping them tied to the past and things that can't happen. 

The Ninth Day

Storyline: In World War II, after a period living hell on earth in the concentration camp of Dachau with other catholic priests, Father Abbé Henri Kremer gets a nine days leave to return to his home town for his mother's funeral. Along this period, the SS Gestapo lieutenant Gebhardt tries to persuade Henri, who was born in silver-spoon and member of an influent Luxembourgian family, to convince the local bishop to give-up resisting to the Germans and write a letter to the Vatican in the name of the Catholic Church of Luxemburg convincing the Pope to support Hitler and the Nazi regime. The ambivalent Henri questions himself and the bishop what he shall do.


The ninth day can help me further for my radio play through the way it was based around a diary which was written during the War. It expresses the feeling and theme of danger, survival and trust throughout with the characters riddles being told in this film. Letters and Diaries are also used which is a key device in my plot of my radio play and it shows the key communication at this time. 

The Hurt Locker

Plot: An intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When a new sergeant, James, takes over a highly trained bomb disposal team amidst violent conflict, he surprises his two subordinates, Sanborn and Eldridge, by recklessly plunging them into a deadly game of urban combat. James behaves as if he's indifferent to death. As the men struggle to control their wild new leader, the city explodes into chaos, and James' true character reveals itself in a way that will change each man forever.


Even though the Hurt Locker is a different War time period compared to my Radio play it still presents the effect of war, on both the soldiers and the families. It shows how risky it is to fight for your country and how all the troops work together- This could help me in terms of my character through the way the german boy has the risk of being in the front line and the fears he faces if he goes there. It also shows that war is still going on in today's society and that it is reality. 

Black Book research

Plot: Israel 1956. Rachel, a Jew, rather unexpectedly meets an old friend at the kibbutz where is she working as a teacher. It brings back memories of her experiences in The Netherlands during the war, memories of betrayal. September 1944. Rachel is in trouble when her hiding place is bombed by allied troops. She gets in contact with a man from the resistance and joins a group of Jews who are to be smuggled across the Biesbosch by boat to the freed South Netherlands. Germans from a patrol boat murder them all however. Only Rachel is able to escape. She is rescued by a resistance group under the leadership of Gerben Kuipers. When Kuipers' son is captured after trying to smuggle weapons, he asks Rachel to seduce SS-hauptsturmführer Ludwig Müntze. Soon she will find out the attack in the Biesbosch wasn't a coincidence.


This film could help me for my Radio play because it has the Theme of love, betrayal, survival and trust which is similar to my plot. It also looks at the whole issue of who you could trust around the time of the war and how people would behave because of it

Sunshine research

This film tells the story about 3 generations of a Jewish family living in Hungary, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage. It explains their highs and lows and the hopes and dreams they all have. 


This film includes a brief scene whereby the family are effected by the war. News reports , the changes that the germans made, a concentration camp and life after the camp are shown all in this film. 
The Jewish family in this tale are separated and horrific scenes take place as the men of the family are tortured and murdered inside the camps however the hope and dreams of this family does not change even when the war is over and the family have lost people they love. 


This film could help me in terms of my radio play because it showed how the War effected people who were in families, especially those who lost their loved ones and survived the camps. It also showed the fall of the Jews which is similar to the Jewish family in my story. Sunshine also has a first person narration which is told by Ralph Fiennes which could also be helpful because my radio play is told through the eyes of the Jewish girl and German boy. 

Research: David Thewlis and Vera Farmiga Interview- Boy in The Striped Pajamas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=judzB7XTpw8

This interview with the actors who play the mother and father in Boy In The Striped Pajamas helped me massively through the way they are a modern p.o.v of what people think of WW2 today and they also talk about relationship of people in the same situation as the characters in my radio play. They also talk about voice and using british accents compared to German accents in the film and how using the normal voice destroys the whole universal feeling to the piece , plus its not why the audience want to listen to it.