HANNA’S WAR

US, 1988, 148 minutes. Colour.
Ellen Burstyn, Maruschka Detmers, Anthony Andrews, Donald Pleasence, David Warner, Ingrid Pitt.
Directed by Menahem Golan.

Hanna’s War is based on the true story of Hanna Senesh, a Hungarian woman of Jewish background, who was taken from Nazi-occupied Hungary to Palestine and trained by the British to serve as a commando. When she returned to Europe, she went into Yugoslavia with a commando team, establishing escape routes on the border with Hungary for British pilots who had crashed. She also saved Hungarian Jews in Hungary which led to her arrest, torture and her death at the hands of the Gestapo and the Hungarian police.

Hanna Senesh is portrayed by Dutch-born actress Maruschka Detmers who has had an international career. Ellen Burstyn appears as her mother. The rest of the cast is Hungarian or the corps of stalwart British actors led by Donald Pleasance, David Warner and Anthony Andrews.

The film was shot in Hungary, offering an authentic atmosphere. It was directed by Menahem Golan, one of the founders of the Cannon Group with Yoram Globus, director of forty-four films himself as well as producer of many, many more. The Cannon Group was often criticised for making potboiling films on small budgets. However, they also produced such films as The Magician of Lublin and John Cassavetes’ Love Streams.

1. A story of World War Two? The Jewish perspective? The Israeli film-makers? The film as entertainment, as propaganda?

2. The scope of the film, its length, Panavision photography, Hungarian locations, action sequences and stunt work? The drama? The musical score, the choir and the theme?

3. The point of view of the film, Israeli, Jewish? Hungarian? British? The film based on the diaries of Hanna? The memoirs?

4. The world of 1937, the genteel world? Hanna and her family? Her mother? The Jewish background in Hungary? The 1938 elections? Moving in 1939 to Israel?

5. Hanna and her family, the arrival in Palestine, life in Palestine, the farming, the fishing? The outbreak of World War Two? The challenge to Hanna, her decision? The train, the discussions with Mc Cormack? Her training, success? The mission?

6. The war in Yugoslavia, March 1944, the landing, the role of the partisans, their help, Hanna moving along the border, into Hungary? Mc Cormack, the further training, the refugees, deaths?

7. Hanna being smuggled to Budapest, the betrayal, at the station, her arrest, in prison, the torture? Donald Pleasence as Captain Rosza, sadistic? Her remaining staunch? The months passing, her mother? The kindly guard? The mirror and her friends? The trial, speech? Execution? Hanna as a martyr?

8. Her mother, at the house, Margit? The arrest? Suicide, the exercise yard? The trial? The blunt ending?

9. Mc Cormack, his character, the partisans? The interviews? The training?

10. The soldiers, their work? The traitors?

11. Rosza, his being in control, the end?

12. Captain Simon, his participation in the trial?

13. Insight into Hungary and its plight during the war, Yugoslavia? The Nazi regime? The Jews?

14. The film as a memoir? Its point of view? Israeli? Propaganda? Entertainment?