Cinema: Betrayed

“Powerful and immersive” (Los Angeles Times) — On May 18, see the gripping Norwegian Holocaust drama based on the story of the Braude family, Betrayed /Den største forbrytelsen (dir. Eirik Svensson, Norway, 2021) at Scandinavia House!

When German troops invade Norway during World War II, despite the millions of Jewish people across Europe who have been deported and killed in German concentration camps, Norwegian Jews initially feel safe and protected. Among them are the Braude family: including Charles, an up-and-coming boxer planning to marry a gentile, Ragnhilde; his mother Sara and father Benzel, and brothers Harry (Carl Martin Eggesbø) and Isak (Eilif Hartwig). But as the war escalates in Europe, the situation changes drastically. When all Jewish men over the page of 15 are arrested and taken to prison camps, many of the women behind are too frightened to escape, desperately waiting for their husbands and sons to return — until November 26, 1942, when hundreds of Jews are picked up by police and transported to a dock in Oslo to the German cargo ship SS DONAU, destined for Auschwitz. For the Braudes, an ordinary Norwegian family, their fate is sealed by the fact that they are Jews. (126 min. In Norwegian with English subtitles)

“An agonized study of suffering and treachery, and no less valuable — or powerful — for being regrettably familiar”—Variety