Into The Arms Of Strangers: Stories Of The Kindertransport (UK)

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The story of the child refugees who were transported to Britain to escape the Nazi Holocaust
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 122 mins
Retail Price: £19.99
Release Date:

Synopsis:
Narrated by Dame Judi Dench, Into the Arms of Strangers is a powerfully moving documentary telling the story of the 10,000 children who were moved from Europe to safety in Britain in the months leading up to World War II. Fascinating and positively inspiring, this Academy Award winner should not be missed.

Special Features:
Audio commentary by producer Deborah Oppenheimer and writer/director Mark Jonathan Harris
Audio commentary by editor Kate Amend, sound designer and re-recording mixer Gary Rydstrom, archival researcher Corrinne Collett and composer Lee Holdridge
Interview with Lord Richard Attenborough
Additional interviews with Kinder
Photo gallery
Awards
Premiere footage: London and Berlin
Historical artifacts
Memorabilia from the Kinder
Kindertransport instructions
Theatrical trailer
DVD-Rom study guide

Video Tracks:
Standard 1.33:1

Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English

Subtitle Tracks:
French
Polish
Czech
Italian
Romanian
English
German
Hungarian
Dutch
Bulgarian

Directed By:
Mark Jonathan Harris

Written By:

Starring:
Judi Dench

Soundtrack By:
Lee Holdridge

Director of Photography:
Don Lenzer

Editor:
Kate Amend

Producer:
Deborah Oppenheimer
Lou Fusaro
Alicia Dwyer
Cayce Callaway

Distributor:
Warner Home Video

Your Opinions and Comments

8 / 10
This movie rightfully won the Academy Award for best documentary feature last year.
It tells the sad (yet, so rewarding) story of some 10000 Jewish children, who were sent to the UK to live with fostering families prior to WWII, when things were getting pretty bad back in Europe.
It`s a very well done documentary with lots of archive footage, superb narration and and interviews that reveal the best (and worst) of human nature.
The video transfer (fullscreen) is good. This movie is made out of very old (and sometimes, rare) archive footage, so the condition of the original film is acceptable. There are no compression signs at all and the editing helps the movie become more personal (despite it dealing with thousands and thousands of people`s lives).
The DD 5.1 soundtrack is very good. There`s a good usage of the surrounds in scenes that include archive footage (obviously remastered). There`s also a DD 5.1 German soundtrack, which is a good thing, since the movie is now part of the mandatory Holocaust studies in the schools of Germany.
The menus are beautifully animated with sound.
The extras include 2 commentaries by the director, producer and technical crew, more interviews, a picture gallery, a behind the scenes look, that includes the 2 major premieres of the movie (in the UK and in Germany) and some very nice DVD-ROM features (information, animated pages etc.).
Bottom line - a very good movie that is bound to make you shed some tears. Other than being a good movie, it`s also an important one. Don`t miss it.
posted by Zvi Josef on 5/2/2003 16:40