I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.
— Fredrich Nietzsche
If you have a chance to see the engrossing, chilling, emotional Four Winters, grab it. You’ll come away with a fresh perspective on the Holocaust: Jews not as victims, but as people doing everything they could to defend one another against unspeakable atrocities. Tens of thousands — somewhere between 25,000 and 35,000 — escaped extermination efforts to survive in the forests of eastern Europe. Many of those who did so were young — teenagers and young adults who had lost those they loved: parents and siblings, in some cases spouses and young children. Determined to survive and desperate for revenge, multiple pockets of communities plotted together for defense and to provide food, shelter, and medical care to those who needed it. They brought or stole weapons and learned to use them to protect themselves, to obtain the supplied they needed for survival, and in some cases, to blow up bridges and disrupt rail corridors.
Writer, producer, and director Julia Mintz combines interviews with the last surviving partisans as well as archival film footage and photographs to dramatic effect. This story of Jewish partisan resistance and bravery in WWII celebrates “the soulful bravery, cleverness, and leadership” of those who fought the efforts to exterminate them and their people. The team also included Peter Heady and Timothy A. Kuper, Editors; Tricia Reidy, Story Editor; Kit Marshall, Photographer & Verite Cinematographer; and Allen Moore, Cinematographer.
stills courtesy New Moon Films
Four Winters
New Moon Films
Documentary, History | U.S. | color | 1h 36m
in limited release beginning Sep 16, 2022
at West Newton Cinema (Boston) through March 2, 2023
for future screenings, visit Four Winters
