WORLD WILL TREMBLE, THE

(director/writer: Lior Geller; cinematographer: Ivan Vatsov; editor: Tai Keller; music: Erez Kokas; cast: Gilles Ben-David (Aaron), Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Solomon Wiener), Jeremy Neumark Jones (Michael Podchelbnik), Charlie MacGechen (Wolf), David Cross (Lange), Michael Epp (Lenz), Anton Lesser (Rabbi Schulman), George Lenz (Gustav), Leonard Proxauf (Oskar), Tim Bergmann (Burmeister), Adi Kvetner (Felix), Oliver Moller (Mobius). Danny Scheinmann (Goldman), Aleksandra Kostova (Rachel); Runtime: 109; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Sufo Evtimov, Naomi Levan, Lior Geller, Saar Yogev, Philip J. Roth; Lorton Entertainment/Vertical; 2025)

“Fascinating untold true story of Holocaust prisoners escaping from a Polish death camp in 1942.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
 
Lior Geller (“The Heart of Jenin”/”We Die Young”) is director and writer of this fascinating untold true story of Holocaust prisoners escaping from a Polish death camp in 1942. He was helped getting the escape story accurate by the research of the historian Dr. Shik.

Solomon Wiener (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) was the inmate leader who planned the daring escape, and along with Michael Podchelbnik (Jeremy Neumark Jones) and Wolf (Charlie MacGechen) became the first eyewitnesses to the Nazi extermination camps when they successfully fled the Chelmno camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1942.

Scenes of screaming prisoners stripped naked and forced into gas ovens is unbearable to watch.

David Kross plays the evil Lange, who is the untrustworthy commander of this so called “in-transit camp.” It’s a place where Holocaust victims are instantly killed on arrival because there’s no forced labor system in place.

Solomon and his crew were chosen by the Nazis to do the dirty work (like digging mass graves), and took advantage of this sort of privileged situation to escape.

The riveting performance by Oliver Jackson-Cohen is one of the most haunting and memorable performances ever on film.

The film has been released at a time when the terrorist hate group Hamas has kidnapped, tortured and killed innocent victims just because they’re Jewish, which sadly tells us antisemitism is still alive. But this time the Jews have built a powerful Jewish country in Israel, and mean what they say about their slogan of “Never Again.”

This is a well-crafted dramatic film made for good people to see so they never forget such important history lessons about the Holocaust.

REVIEWED ON 3/15/2025  GRADE: A-
dennisschwartzreviews.com