One of those documentaries that grows in impact as it goes along. For the first hour or so I found this study of the Nazi's plundering and stealing Europe's great works of art, along with the allies attempts to spare art during the war, intellectually interesting, but a bit dry and even repetitive.
But as the film moves on to the aftermath of the war, and we get more of the human side of the story; great art treasures are returned to the lands whose cultures they represent and we see the joy that it brings, both sides of the Russian debate about keeping the art they took from Germany as a sort of reparation for the horrible human cost of the war, restorations still going on 60 years later with care and passion, a Christian German who has made it his mission to return beautiful and intricate Torah scroll caps to their rightful Jewish owners, the film blossoms into a very human examination of just how important art is to human beings and to our sense of selves.
Ultimately, what starts feeling like a somewhat academic exercise ends up as a very moving and human documentary.
But as the film moves on to the aftermath of the war, and we get more of the human side of the story; great art treasures are returned to the lands whose cultures they represent and we see the joy that it brings, both sides of the Russian debate about keeping the art they took from Germany as a sort of reparation for the horrible human cost of the war, restorations still going on 60 years later with care and passion, a Christian German who has made it his mission to return beautiful and intricate Torah scroll caps to their rightful Jewish owners, the film blossoms into a very human examination of just how important art is to human beings and to our sense of selves.
Ultimately, what starts feeling like a somewhat academic exercise ends up as a very moving and human documentary.