My Mother's Courage

The mass extermination of millions of European Jews is hardly the stuff of comedy, but German director Michael Verhoeven has fashioned an eloquent and surprisingly funny tale from one woman's chilling brush with the Holocaust. Based on an incident in the life of the mother of Hungarian-Jewish author George Tabori, on whose play this film is based, Verhoeven's film follows Elsa (superbly played by Pauline Collins) through one singularly frightening day during WWII. Preternaturally optimistic, dutiful and always obedient, Budapest housewife Elsa manages to retain a dangerously deceptive sense of safety, even after her husband's deportation to Auschwitz. One morning i...