The Book Thief: Words are life!

Most often we are told not to read the book after seeing the film, but this is one film -- The Book Thief that one can safely do that! Both are outstandingly good! 

The Book Thief based on the novel of the same name by Markus Zusak, tells the story of Liesel (Sophie Nélisse), a down-to-earth young girl, sent to live with a foster family in World War II Germany. It was at the grave of her brother,  that she picks up her first book, unwittingly left behind by the grave digger and earns her the unsaid sobriquet of 'the book thief'. She learns to read with encouragement from her new foster father, Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Max, a Jewish refugee who they are hiding in the cellar under the house. For Liesel and Max, the power of words and imagination become the only escape from the tumultuous events happening around them. This film is a life-affirming story of survival and of the resilience of the human spirit.

Director: Brian Percival

Film Clip

Her tough manner makes her an object of ridicule in school, but Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch), her classmate, becomes her good friend. However, when Liesel is asked by her stern teacher to write her name on the blackboard on her first day of school, it is obvious that she doesn't know how to read or write.

Along with a very imaginative 'dictionary' painted on the walls of the cellar, Hans decides to teach Liesel to read by using the book she'd taken from the graveside. Eager to learn Liesel is inspired to read more books, which are impossible to find during war. Living in Nazi Germany is hard and the scene where a massive bonfire of any book which is not German was burnt in the neighbourhood square can give a tug at the heart of any rabid book lover.  Liesel waits till the crowds leave to salvage a book out of the burning pile. She also takes the initiative to read aloud, to keep calm during an air raid where the whole town sits in a dark air raid shelter.

Director Brian Percival adroitly tells Liesel's story and has the audience empathising with her life, with its undeniable pathos. Screenwriter Michael Petroni and Oscar-nominated composer John Williams has helped to do this film justice by bringing it from page to screen and giving it just the right tone. Narrator Roger Allam who took the unseen role of death has given the film a three dimensional angle which is eerily just right. Geoffrey Rush is a very lovable Hans and Sophie Nelisse is a delicately perfect Liesel. Surely Markus Zusak is pleased with his book coming to life like this on celluloid. A dream any author would wish for.

 

- Marianne Furtado de Nazareth