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Helen Mirren plays the role of a Holocaust survivor in the upcoming film

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Helen Mirren plays the role of a Holocaust survivor in the upcoming film

(JTA) — In “White Bird,” a long-awaited film about a Jewish girl who is rescued by her classmate in Nazi-occupied France, the Holocaust is fertile ground for teaching children how to be good.

The film is a spin-off of “Wonder” (2017), a modern-day story about a middle school student who tries to fit in despite his facial differences. “White Bird” begins with this boy's bully, Julian (Bryce Gheisar), but the real hero is his grandmother Sara (now played by Helen Mirren and as a child by Ariella Glaser) – who realizes that her grandson needs morality, Guidance tells her Holocaust survival story that makes up the majority of the film.

Directed by Marc Forster, the German-Swiss filmmaker behind “A Man Called Otto,” “Finding Neverland” and “Cristopher Robin,” “White Bird” hits theaters on Friday. The release was originally scheduled for 2022 and late 2023, but was delayed due to changes in production and distribution companies and the SAG strike last year.

According to Deadline, distributor Lionsgate may have had a difficult time marketing the film as it turned to the faith-based Kingdom Story Company to help find an audience – even if “White Bird” didn't match the other faith-based ones similar to the label's based films. This includes “Jesus Revolution”.

The creators and cast of “White Bird” will appear together at the New York premiere on September 26, 2024. Author RJ Palacio is second from left. (Source: Michael Loccisano/WireImage)

Based on bestselling novels

Both “White Bird” and “Wonder” are based on a bestselling series by RJ Palacio, a children's author with a strong interest in the Holocaust. Palacio's husband is Jewish and her mother-in-law lost much of her family in the Holocaust. Palacio says it was her husband Bernard's uncle, who was a school principal in New York City for many years, who told her about a lack of children's books on the subject – particularly before eighth or ninth grade, as “The Diary of Anne Frank.” “was awarded.

Although Palacio is not Jewish herself, she felt compelled to fill what she felt was a gap in Holocaust reading for younger children. Bernard encouraged her to write “White Bird,” a graphic novel aimed at readers ages 8 to 12.

“Reminding people of the Holocaust and learning from the lessons of the past should not be left to Jews alone,” Palacio told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The fact that I have a Jewish husband made that even more exciting for me – as did the fact that I have two sons who share that heritage.”

She was inspired by Martin Gilbert's “The Righteous,” a book about non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during World War II. The influence is clear in Palacio's story: When German troops occupy Sara's French village, another student named Julien (Orlando Schwerdt), bullied at school because he has lost the ability of one leg due to polio, helps her hide in the barn His family has been hiding his selfless parents for over a year.

Julien's altruism contrasts with the opportunistic cruelty of Vincent, a classmate who was attractive to Sara before the Nazis invaded her village and he rushed to their aid. “White Bird” deals with children’s greatest charm and danger – their malleability.

“This is an emotional but also very inspiring time in a person’s life,” Palacio said. “When they are 10 to 13 years old, they are exploring who they are, who they want to be, and trying out their different personalities. They make little moral decisions all the time.”

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The moral poles that Julien and Vincent represent are just as understandable for Sara's grandson as they are for the viewers of “White Bird”. The lessons contained in her story—especially the importance of empathy, tolerance, and integrity—are made easier through the medium of Holocaust fiction. In the great turmoil of the Second World War, many rescuers acted out of altruism, charity and love. Others were motivated by money and abandoned the Jews when the money ran out. There were selfish people who made a decision to save a life and generous people who made a decision to look the other way. But in a fiction about children with clear-cut principles, it's easier to find the moral insights.

“White Bird” joins a new wave of efforts to make learning about the Holocaust more accessible to relatively young children, including an exhibition about Danes who saved Jews from the Nazis at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, which is said to be intended for children 8 and up. Proponents of this approach to Holocaust material argue that children have been bombarded with shocking atrocities for too long, and that younger children in particular are more receptive to stories of justice and hope – which they can more easily compare to experiences in their own lives.

“White Bird” punishes Vincent with a Grimm fairytale-style death, with wolves descending on the forest as he hunts Sara. It is the most dramatic storybook incident, tracing the children's fantasies in White Bird and also involving imaginary journeys from Sara's hideout to Paris and New York. Forster, who adapted the fantastical episodes from Palacio's book, said the story's emotional authenticity allowed him to play with magical realism.

“When you tell a story with magical realism, the key at the beginning is to really find the grounding in realism,” Forster told JTA. “You feel like the story is real, the characters are grounded, the world is grounded – once you make that connection, the characters can take you into their fantasy.”

Although Vincent doesn't receive redemption, Julian does. The youngest tyrant, named after Sara's savior, is a changed person after learning how his grandmother was hunted solely because of her identity and rescued by another outcast. He apologizes to a classmate he treated rudely at the beginning of the film and even joins his school's social justice group.

“I thought it was really important that kids who see themselves in Julian — who may be bullies themselves — understand that their paths are not predetermined and that one big mistake doesn't define you,” Palacio said. “Everyone has the chance to start over.”



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