As Far as my Feet will Carry Me, starring B. Bettermann ★★★★★
This is an excellent story, apparently based on the true account (though it appears to have a few Hollywood-style changes) of a German soldier after world war II held captive in a Gulag in the far reaches of Siberia. The first half of the film chronicles the conditions of the Gulag system and the second half of his harrowing escape to freedom. You are always left on the edge of your chair, with excellent filmography as well as superlative acting. The film was made in German with burned-in English subtitles, something that should never be in the age of DVDs, where subtitles should be able to be turned on or off. When Russian is spoken (often), no translation is given.
One of the reviewers of this film on Amazon.com made note that Hollywood tends to predominate in Nazi films, yet completely overlook the Soviet gulag system. Knowing that the Soviets murdered at least 3x as many Jews as Hitler and that their span of terror lasted 50 years, compared to the 2-3 years of Hitler, you are left to conclude that Stalin and the Soviet system was a far greater evil than Hitler, yet Stalin was an “ally” of the west. Germany felt sorry for their “mistake”, but Russia continues in their arrogance of having done nothing wrong. Why doesn’t Hollywood figure this out? Perhaps this is why I enjoy foreign films, as they don’t have the ideological base of Hollywood.