Adira (2014) User Reviews

Great Message ... Unbelievable Execution

[chrissso · 4/10 · 20 February 2017]

This film has a great message ... the tragedy of Jewish children during WW2 and the holocaust. It points out that only 11% of the 1.6 million Jewish children survived the war ... and that most of those survivors were permanently separated from their parents.

Good point ... one we should remember ... the problem is that this film is so unbelievable that it hurts the message! Seriously anyone slightly observant ... anyone with a simple understanding of WW2 history and Europe ... could create a list of a dozen things that did not make sense.

My favorite ... that a 14 year old "city" girl could hide out on a farm ... somewhere within driving distance of Berlin ... for 3 years ... without being discovered. And that she could learn to hunt and gather and protect herself like a seasoned survivor.

Pretty silly and childish ... Thanks God it is so short ... 4 of 10!

POST: Thanks for disabling the message boards IMDb ... way to take care of your customers! hope it proves to be a bad business decision and some well paid Execs lose their jobs!!!

Not very believable

[allanradman · 5/10 · 11 June 2016]

A story of a young woman who hides from the Germans after her family is sent off to a concentration camp. It's not very believable, nor very interesting. Not sure, really, how it got such high ratings. The woman's hair never grows though she's been living in an abandoned and dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere. She never gets dirty, nor grimy, though she lives in squalor. Her clothes are never tattered nor even frayed. The blanket she sleeps on is always washed. Then one day her hair is much longer.

One day the worst British paratrooper in the British army happens to wonder into her house. So after being on her own for years she looks fine (rosey cheeks, red lips, perfect hair and clean) but she takes his food and gives the impression she hasn't eaten properly for 3+ years. You only know the British soldier is a paratrooper from his maroon beret and English accent. Otherwise, there are no insignia's on his overcoat/cap/undergarments. By the way, only the Germans speak their native tongue. Everyone else is fluent in English as if it is his/her first language (filmed on location in Canada, perhaps?).

As for the costumes it looks more like the wardrobe department found the surplus uniforms at the local Salvation Army thrift store. It just looks as if something is wrong.

Aside from that, and given 1960s era TV filmed WW2 shows mostly in Southern California, I found myself looking for other titles to watch 30 minutes into the film. Over the course of 3 days I finally finished the film. 5/10

Low Quality Acting and Plot Holes Ruin a Story Worth Telling

[theficklefox · 4/10 · 13 August 2018]

It's unfortunate that the main actress overacted in much of the film and that her wig was so obvious. That; and the glaring plot holes such as the missing nazi guard at the end; were very distracting to a story that could have been much better told. This is a worthwhile story- and deserved more care in its telling. We; as a society; tend to rate movies about nazi Germany, cancer, aids etc; much higher than they would have been otherwise. We all recognize the importance of remembering. But this felt lazy.

Still trying to figure out the 7.5 out of 10 stars

[nrcalgl · 1/10 · 4 November 2016]

It really was that bad.

Other reviews have the basic plot pretty well defined. Her mother and father assist Jews out of Nazi Germany until they themselves are found out. Their last act was to help their daughter to escape the hands of the Nazis. Perhaps there is some validity to this story but I see nothing online that lends to this being an actual account. Thank goodness because the movie is just so unbelievably bad.

It's not the cinematography that is so horrifically bad; it is the entire story line. It is absolutely inconceivable that this young girl survives with or without any skills in a magically hidden forest in Germany during the Nazi regime. Yet somehow she does.

We are to believe that she is 12ish, based on costume, in the beginning and at the end of 3 years alone has come to resemble Xena Warrior princess who hunts with a stick. And, a very well fed Xena. I found that to be appalling to the point of insulting.

Don't usually write reviews, but in this case, it was necessary. Bad, bad, bad movie.

Movie that cures insomnia

[Aqua_qld · 2/10 · 16 January 2021]

The girl's transformation from hiding is not believable at all. Acting is amateurish, I was falling fast asleep while watching, skipped a lot of scenes because my eyes were closing most of the time from boredom, it was so boring. I didn't find any thrilling part of this movie. It makes me wonder why it was completed. Bad acting from all the actors especially from the main actress Adira & the Nazis. If you have insomnia, then watch this movie. I'm very generous that's why I have given 2 stars rating. Indeed I'm extremely lavish.

Project Greenlight?? Really?! Awful movie

[lazygafiltafish · 2/10 · 24 February 2021]

To start, if this really was nominated as one of the best movies for PG, their expectations have really gone downhill!

As a Jew I'm drawn to Holocaust movies given my family's history. I watched this very late at night since I was trying to go sleep and wanted a short movie so chose this since it was included in my Prime membership.

I'll start with the few positives. The lead actors (really just Adira and Eric) are okay imo especially given that there is little dialogue in the movie. Likewise her parents are okay since they hardly speak as well. I didn't really mind that her clothing, body, and hair looked clean given that I mean she did have water to clean herself so I'll let that one go. The cinematography was nice of what looks like the midwest and not Germany or even Europe. I also liked the simple scenes of her showing what she would do each day. That's all I got.

On to the bad... You can tell this was a student film created by students who really knew very little about Jews or even the holocaust... 1- She wears a huge star of David necklace throughout the movie. No Jew is going to wear that in Europe during this time while trying to survive. 2-For the life of me I couldn't figure out how old she was supposed to be. Was she supposed to be like a 10 year old? They have a scene where the Gestapo finds a little doll. I couldn't tell if that was implied to be hers, or a kid that her parents rescued before. The actress looked like she was in her 20s-early 30s. They show her getting her period 3 years later while living on her own. I'd guess the average age of starting your period is 13 and that she was 10 at the beginning? 3- Gestapo...Doesn't even bother to search her house when he knows there is most likely a kid in their judging by finding a doll. The Gestapo were ruthless checking every nook and cranny. It was like he was saying "Meh, there's a movie I want to catch so I won't bother". 4- The two German soldiers...I agree with views I saw on here and on Amazon that it was like watching Monty Python . It's like you know you shouldn't laugh given who they are and what they did, but it's so bad, that you do laugh. 5- Adira ends up spearing animals with a wooden spear she creates bringing out her inner gave woman. Okay...What's even more ridiculous is that when one of the soldiers tries to attack her (he has a loaded gun), she tries to defend herself with same wooden spear. Yeah...that will do it. 6- Eric (paratrooper) says he saw up close people lining up and getting killed in the gas chambers. An English paratrooper would not have actually been at the camp viewing this up close. Ridiculous thing to say and gives Holocaust deniers more reason to think this was a part of a made up conspiracy. 7- Eric leaves a gun with 2 bullets after Adira runs off after he tells her that her family is probably dead. I didn't know if he left that for her to defend herself, for her to end her life, or if he just accidently left it there out in the open perfectly laid out. 8-Her parents were English Jews (father converted) who moved to Germany to help out her mother's family and other Jews. While this did happen, they wouldn't have brought their children with them out of the UK. WTF? 9-She finds a working radio in an abandoned house that still works. I don't think portable radios even were invented at this time. 10. The fact that she runs from the truck barely out of Berlin to the abandoned farmhouse. This couldn't have been in the middle of nowhere but they implied that it was. It took years for Nazis and soldiers to even find the place? No.

Combine that with this trying to be an arthouse style film with her internal dialogue as she lays down in green fields along with an ending similar to The Notebook...

Subtle, unique gem of a Holocaust story

[veggieburgerus · 8/10 · 16 May 2019]

What apparently most reviews here miss is the entire point of the unique subtlety with which this version of a Holocaust tale is told....and the Jewish flavor to tread the well-worn path of Holocaust tragedies. Some religious females wear wigs, which is why her hair looks the same for months! Also, the movie folks intentionally did not wish to be bound to the de rigger authenticity of one becoming dirty & tattered after living in the woods for months. If we understand & accept their craft, we are relieved to absorb the story, the characters and the humanity therein. The tale becomes hauntingly etherial, while not totally lacking in the brutality perpetrated in 85 million ways during WWII. Health of our society is benefitted through the repeating of stories reminding us of what we are capable of becoming, so we can re-set our brains to resist any such malevolence. The character performances are a bit stilted which I believe is quite intentional in order to allow the salient meanings to rise to the surface without being mired in the weeds of traditional filmmaking.