Review of the movie The Boy in the Woods

The Boy in the Woods is an archetype and based on reality that deals with the events of the Holocaust and the Nazi genocide in World War II. Be with Zumji by criticizing this movie.

A Boy in the Jungle is a movie based on reality. A story about the life of a teenager named Max, who now lives as a painter in Canada. Genocide is an undeniable part of World War II. Nazi ideology was a dangerous issue that emerged as text, subtext and metatext in the works of German artists and countries under the control of fascism after the fall of Hitler. The Holocaust and the killing of Jews by Hitler's army became a serious issue for artists. This event was reflected in the writers' stories and the cinema was filled with films that dealt with Hitler's genocide.

The entry of anti-Nazism ideas into art caused cinema, literature, painting, etc. to be deeply enriched. Even if the artists did not directly address the effects of the Nazis, they subtly address the issues surrounding the events of the Second World War by using subtext and hypertext. The horror that the people of Europe and the Allies experienced during the Nazi rule was manifested in the art of these countries, especially Germany. The cold atmosphere of the films of this country has been directly influenced by the history of Germany. The Boy in the Woods is a work related to the Holocaust, and although it was made in Canada, it follows the style of German works.

The story of the film will be revealed later

So far, many films have been made related to the Holocaust, works that either deal directly with this genocide, or move in the position of a side story next to the main story, or act as a metaphor. But among all these films, this show is more compact and different in terms of production. The Boy in the Woods takes an introspective and different look at the Holocaust and approaches this event from a shocking angle. Max is a Jewish teenager who is only 13 years old and is imprisoned in a German camp with his mother and younger sister. He escapes from the Nazis and goes to his aunt, one of the two survivors of his family of 60 people.

The Boy in the Woods takes an introspective and different look at the Holocaust and approaches this event from a shocking angle.

When Max enters Jasco's house, the film passes through the narrative channel and enters its drama. Max's aunt gives him to a Christian family in exchange for money, but things happen and Max is forced to take refuge in the forest. The Boy in the Woods, even though it belongs to the artistic movement of cinema, but it develops its suspenseful ideas from the very beginning plans of the drama. The entry of Nazi officers into Jasco's house and the burning of Max's family photos serves as a dramatic suspense and can be considered a metaphor for the death of his family in the camps of Nazi Germany.

From the moment Max escapes from the Nazi concentration camp and takes refuge in Jasco's house, the film is similar to all Holocaust narratives. But the main story of the movie starts right when Max goes to the forest. When the hero of the story enters the forest, deep ideas are formed and the film reinforces its drama with philosophical and psychological views. A boy who escaped from the holocaust must now shelter, hunt and seek warmth to dream of winter like the early humans. As mentioned, this film, unlike most Holocaust films, intends to deal with this event with a deep and challenging attitude. The filmmaker creates conditions and puts Max in a mental strait to vent.

In the Nazi camp, Max's mother tells him that you are a man now and you can handle yourself. That's why he encourages his son to run away. In primitive human societies, every person needed a ceremony of passage. Transition from infancy, transition from childhood, transition from celibacy, marriage ceremony, initiation ceremony of warfare, transition from material life, etc. When the men of the tribe wanted to introduce a boy to the community of men through circumcision, at first they killed him with a snake that He lived in the forest, they scared him and told him that this snake is waiting for a part of your body and now you have to deal with this creature. Meanwhile, women were known as a support for boys and, unlike men, they were afraid of boys going to the heart of the forest and being circumcised. In fact, the boys took shelter in the arms of the women so that they might prevent this ceremony.

It means that in the past, the end of every part of life required an effective ceremony. From the point of view of Dr. Jung and Joseph Campbell (the author of the book Hero with a Thousand Faces), the lack of transition ceremonies in today's modern life undoubtedly leads the new man to mental illnesses, because the unconscious cannot move to a new stage without understanding and touching these endings. Now, due to the conditions of the genocide against the Jews, Max enters adulthood and manhood very quickly and without any ceremony and changes. This sudden change and facing the same life by the mother, a mother who must play the role of a shelter for her male child in the human unconscious, will end up harming the psyche of the hero of the story; This is the reason why children who survived wars and genocides can no longer return to normal life.

According to Jung's psychological views and the lack of psychological development of the first character of the story, this objection is brought to the film that the director has not been able to pay attention to the character of the hero of the story. Separating from the family and going to the forest for a child who needs care can be very heavy and terrifying, especially since the filmmaker uses a series of flashbacks to show that Max is involved in the Oedipus complex. From Freud's point of view, the greatest achievement of lack of clarity in the transitional stages of life is the emergence of this complex. Max suddenly enters a new phase of his life due to the conditions of the war without any prior preparation and cannot forget his mother. Flashbacks in which only the mother is present (we do not see the father) and a cradle hanging from a tree lead us to this view of Freud. Now, the character of a lonely boy who is constantly thinking about his mother and cannot accept why his mother left him, definitely needed a better and more active payment. In fact, Max had to overcome many psychological challenges.

Max enters the forest and begins his heroic journey, a journey that takes place very early in this teenager's life. While fighting with nature and Jewish hunters, he keeps repeating his mother's words to himself: “You have become a man, you are a hero”. By retelling these sentences, Max represses his childhood and inevitably embarks on a difficult and archetypal journey. By entering the forest, the hero of the story steps into one of the main symbols of the collective unconscious, and the filmmaker chooses challenging philosophical ideas to continue his narrative. As soon as the director sends his hero to the forest, he finds a distinctive look at the Holocaust and takes Max to an archetypal world. At the beginning of his entry into the forest, the hero of the story is alien to everything in this ancient world. He is scared, he is angry, he has no water to eat and most importantly, he has not yet been able to cope with his new situation.

By entering the forest, the hero of the story steps into one of the main symbols of the collective unconscious, and the filmmaker chooses challenging philosophical ideas to continue his narrative.

After Max gets used to the forest for a while, it seems that his collective memory is used and he becomes an old man. He draws the picture of his family on stones and places it next to him. In fact, Max creates totems from them to take care of him like the totems of his ancestors. But this idea, like the idea of ​​the transition of the film, is also left without deep consideration, and the hero of the story does not drown in his belief. The filmmaker has used deep ideas to make this film, but he does not develop them deeply. This same totemism and its confrontation with Jewish hunters in the modern era could create the scene of fascinating conflicts. Elsewhere, the filmmaker uses one of the most important Jewish legends, the “Golem” legend. Max makes a Jewish golem with flowers, and his friend Yank asks this totem to save them, and finally the Russians arrive and the Jews are freed.

Using the idea of ​​the golem and saving Max is one of the most interesting ideas of this film, which is better paid than other issues of the film. The filmmaker brings the legend of the golem to the modern world, and this time instead of a rabbi making this clay creature, a child alone in the middle of a forest playfully makes this creature. The golem takes place in the heart of the story and gives consistency to the drama. A boy in the woods finally comes up with a tough question. Max asks God for the reason for his displacement and wants to know why his creator put him in this situation. Yank somewhere asks Max how to become a Christian? And Max says in response, if I knew I wouldn't be here now! The attitude of these two children towards war and genocide is another good idea of ​​the movie. In this work, the director puts everything aside and asks the main question? To what extent did beliefs cause the Holocaust disaster? And why did God not protect the Jews?

Max and Yank are the heroes of this movie in search of God to protect them. At first, Max makes a totem for himself, then he goes to the golem and finally becomes interested in Christianity. Max and Yank's broken psyche puts them in a maze of doubt. Max begins a difficult journey into himself, his subconscious is turned upside down by fear and loneliness in the forest, and his beliefs are influenced by his ancestors. But the filmmaker ultimately keeps Max faithful to his Jewish beliefs. He finally shouts that Golem saved them. The film A Boy in War is a work with deep ideas, a film that challenges human beliefs in times of war.