Filip (2023)

Shot from the movie

Filip 2023

7.4/10
A unique anti-romantic World War II film where survival trumps humanity

War makes animals of men, and Filip is no exception. The film portrays a lone Jewish survivor who walks the streets of Frankfurt as if he doesn’t have anything to lose. He’s able to get away with it, with his work at a luxury hotel, but he’s unable to escape his trauma. He relieves this through trysts with the local women, treating them cruelly, the same way they would treat his people. It’s a uniquely stunning take on the ugly side of war, with its country club glamor and Filip’s lust for life. But it’s also a grim character study of an unlikeable, yet understandable protagonist, whose moral ambiguity comes purely from his own survival.

Synopsis

During World War II, a Polish food server at a luxury German hotel tempts fate as he romances local women while hiding his Jewish identity.

Storyline

After escaping the massacre of the Warsaw Ghetto, Filip, a Polish Jew working in a Frankfurt luxury hotel, risks his disguise as a French Gentile while playing with the hearts of the local women.

TLDR

Eryk Kulm carried this film.

What stands out

Filip’s incongruity is what sets this war film from other films set in World War II. From the setting to the characters, there’s a certain sort of dissonance between what’s happening in Frankfurt versus what we know is happening on the battlefield, in other occupied countries, and in Filip’s own homeland. Filip lounges near swimming pools, and ducks into changing cubicles and well-maintained homes to conduct his trysts, while we know from other movies how terrible it is for other Europeans. Filip’s character is also incongruous, with the stereotypes hurled at him, of course, but also with himself, with the optimism he held before, while his true love Sara was still alive. It makes sense for a film about how war irreversibly changes people, starting with their dehumanization.