Product Description

Fuzzy memories of Anne Frank's diary sometimes cause people to forget that at the height of World War II, Nazi-occupied Amsterdam was not a safe haven for Jews. While many people in the Netherlands and elsewhere risked their lives to protect them, a great many more enthusiastically assisted the Nazis in mistreating them. This children's drama is based on the autobiographical book Kinderjaren by Jonah Oberski. Beginning with his recollections as a four-year old boy, he witnesses the increasing isolation and persecution of his Jewish family living in Amsterdam, until finally they are rounded up and sent to an internment camp. There, while his mother goes mad and his father grows increasingly ill, he is unwittingly drawn to become a member of the group of boys that help with the running of the camp. Jonah is played by two boys: Luke Petterson plays him as a young boy, and Jenner Del Vecchio plays him as an adolescent. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Product Description

The newly re-mastered and restored World War II drama (formerly titled JONA CHE VISSE NELLA BALENA (1993)) comes for the first time to North America on DVD!

Based loosely on the book Childhood by Jona Oberski, LOOK TO THE SKY depicts a hope-filled view of the Holocaust from the perspective of a young Dutch boy, Jonah.

His story begins when German soldiers, speaking a language unknown to four-year-old Jonah, seize the boy along with his parents from their home in Amsterdam and escort them to a village in the Dutch countryside, and then to a transit camp.

Oblivious to the portentous events unfolding around him, the youngster clings to his parents' love and his memories of the past. This enables him not only to face the sufferings that will soon be inflicted upon him, but also, to observe with a certain equanimity, even humor, the details of his strange, new life.

Jonah sees -- and remembers -- everything very clearly. And not only the hardships and the horrors, but also the acts of kindness and moments of poetry, for example, his parents, forced to conclude their last act of love in the same room as their son... the camp cook, who drops him headfirst into a pot... and the elderly couple who almost despair of saving him, but finally see a way.

What Jonah sees and recalls most clearly, however, is his own struggle to survive -- his efforts to emerge alive from the belly of the beast that has swallowed him and the whole world. And despite everything, Jonah does survive -- battered, but not broken.

The picture has won three David di Donatello Awards (the Italian Oscar): Best Costume Design, Best Director for Roberto Faenza, and Best Score for the venerable Ennio Morricone.