The Reel Review
Jewish people living in Norway are arrested and deported to concentration camps in this World War II-era historical drama based on actual events during the Holocaust. The film, which focuses on the Braude family that had migrated years earlier from Lithuania to Oslo, is an adaptation of the 2014 book, “The Ultimate Crime” by Norwegian journalist Marte Michelet.
Imagine having left your home in Europe prior to its occupation by Nazi Germany for a new life in seemingly safe Norway, only to then be invaded by the Nazis. Such was the fate of the Braude family. The film captures the incredibly quick pace with which the roundup of Jews occurred. The scene at Berg Concentration Camp, where each of the Braude men – the father and three adult sons – learn their fate, is harrowing, as is the efforts by the gentile wife of one of the sons, boxer Charles Braude, to try to help his mother escape to safety.
Director Eirik Svensson (Harajuku, One Night in Oslo) and lead Jakob Oftebro (Agent Hamilton, Kon-Tiki) capture the surreal experience of witnessing one’s country be quickly transformed into the puppet of a brutal, fascist regime. Well done.
REEL FACTS
• Approximately 1200 of Norway’s Jews were able to flee to Britain and Sweden during the Nazi German occupation in WWII. Of the 773 Jews deported from Norway to German death camps, only 38 survived, returning home after the war to discover that everything they owned had either been stolen by neighbors or liquidated by Norwegian authorities.
• The Berg Concentration Camp was unique among the 709 concentration camps in Norway in that it was run entirely by Nazi-collaborating Norwegians. After the war, the 60 remaining Jews still imprisoned (for being married to non-Jewish women) were freed and the prison was repurposed to imprison Nazi collaborators. Today, it is a museum.
• Betrayed was nominated for nine 2021 Amanda (the Norwegian Oscar) awards, winning three – Best Actor (Jakob Oftebro), Best Supporting Actress (Pia Halvorsen) and Best Production Design.
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