The Roundup(Drama, History)

Actors:

Mélanie Laurent     Jean Reno             Mathieu Di Concetto   Hugo Leverdez

Annette Monod      David Scheinbaum  Nono Zygler              Jo Weismann

Director:

Rose Bosch(French Director)

Plot:

Joseph, his family, and most other Jewish families in his vicinity were taken to the Vélodrome from their homes by the Germans. They are held there for days and are tended to by Dr. David Scheinbaum and Annette Mo. They are then transported to a concentration camp and tried to make the best of the situation. The families were later separated from each other and killed. Joseph and nono were the only two known survivors from this camp.

Technical Aspects:

One aspect that enhanced the film was the brutal reality of the holocaust. Meaning the film did not water down the events and showed the true horrors of what happened.

Major themes and important Scenes:

Major themes: War, Family, Perseverance

Important Scenes: One important scene is when Annette first entered the Vélodrome and we saw the state that people were being kept in. It was not watered down to be more “family-friendly” as to show only a few of the many horrors of the Holocaust.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths: The un watered-down nature and the very direct views of what the Holocaust had done in our past was one of the major strengths of this film.

Weaknesses: The one weakness that this film had was how although the scenes were not watered down, there would have been even more brutal scenes to rally hammer down on what happened and spread the message to never allow such a thing to happen again.

Rating:

This movie had a very bitter-sweet ending knowing that Joseph and nono survived but all the others were slaughtered.  It is also very important to have films like these to keep the stories of these massacres alive to ensure that they do not happen again.