It is winter and the boy dies soon after in his mother’s arms.ĭirector Brian Percival’s bleak opening scene resonates throughout film. They are on their way to meet the children’s foster parents in a village near Munich. He is interested in courageous people, like Liesel, superbly played by French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse.ĭeath hones in on her from above the clouds as she sits in a train carriage with her mother and her sickly younger brother. He has a compassionate voice he doesn’t cause people to die but helps them to move to the afterlife. An unusual device, but it works well in the context of a Second World War film, and where the Holocaust is a dark shadow.Īs we find out, Death isn’t a typical grim reaper with “sickle or scythe”. The nine-year-old girl is introduced by the unseen narrator “Death” (the voice of Roger Allam). The Nazi Party communicate through fear, terror and irrational prejudice, while people like Liesel uses words to fight injustice and even save lives. It is “how” words are used that is important in this film. The “book thief” in question is an illiterate girl, Liesel Meminger, whose life, like those of other ordinary Germans in 1939, is transformed by the power of words. It was ironic really when, as the title suggests, reading and writing are central themes in this captivating film set in Nazi Germany.
On this occasion, I hadn’t read The Book Thief, the international best-selling novel by Markus Zusak, before the screening, so was spared the distraction of comparing one with the other. I’m usually disappointed by the screen version. Sometimes it is an advantage not to read a book before you see the film adaptation.
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