Filip (film)

Filip is a 2023 Polish war drama film, directed by Michał Kwieciński. It is based on the semi-biographical novel of the same name by Leopold Tyrmand (Filip, 1961).

Plot
In 1943, Filip, a young Polish Jew, escapes the massacre of the Warsaw Ghetto. Disguised as a French Gentile, Filip works as a waiter in a restaurant in Frankfurt am Main, in an exclusive hotel, and carelessly enjoys all the charms of life surrounded by luxury, beautiful women, and friends from all over Europe. However, as the war begins to take a bloody toll on those closest to him, the intricately built world that surrounds him crumbles like a house of cards.

Cast

 * Eryk Kulm Jr. as Filip
 * Victor Meutelet as Pierre
 * Caroline Hartig as Lisa
 * Zoë Straub as Blanka
 * Sandra Drzymalska as Marlena
 * Maja Szopa as Sara
 * Gabriel Raab as Baumuller
 * Bohdan Graczyk as Eissler
 * Werner Biermeier as Brutsch
 * Ondrej Kraus as Bohumil
 * Joseph Altamura as Francesco
 * Tom van Kessel as Lucas
 * Mateusz Rzeźniczak as Laszlo
 * Karol Biskup as Artur
 * Nicolas Przygoda as Ilie
 * Philip Günsch as Jupp
 * Robert Więckiewicz as Staszek
 * Julian Świeżewski as Kazik
 * Jürg Plüss as Gukst
 * Nicolo Pasetti as Karl
 * Christine Detmers as Elsa
 * Anke Sabrina Beerman as Greta
 * Zofia Cybul as Annemarie
 * Ada Szczepaniak as Marta
 * Hanna Śleszyńska as Diva
 * Edyta Torhan as Filip's mother
 * Robert Gonera as Filip's father

Reception
The film was first shown at the Gdynia Film Festival in September 2022, where it won the Silver Lion, and also awards to Michał Sobociński for cinematography and to Dariusz Krysiak for characterization. The actor playing the lead role, Erik Kulm Jr. received the Zbyszek Cybulski Award for a young actor of outstanding individuality in December 2022. The film was also presented at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2023, which was its international premiere. Filip also received the highest award (Platinum Gorget) on March 1, 2023 during the III Festival of National Culture "Pamięć i Tożsamość" in Warsaw.

In his review, Jakub Majmurek appreciates the skill of the filmmakers in telling a full-blooded story in a modern style, as well as focusing, which is rare in Polish historical cinema, on the personal experience of a particular character rather than a grand narrative. Majmurek emphasizes the biopolitical nature of the story. The Nazi authorities in the film are mainly interested in the sexual morality of German women, while Philip is "a Jew who, in the midst of the Holocaust, refuses to die" and decides to enjoy life. Of the film's drawbacks, he mentions that at times it reverberates with misogynistic tones, and that it "lacks the closure that would have made a truly weighty and important work out of a good film offering a fresh look at a historical subject with an outstanding title role by Erik Kulm."