Walking with the Enemy and Ben Kingsley
The Bloor having busy September with features on Bollywood, indie comics
Walking with the Enemy: A new drama about Hungarians’ efforts to defy their Nazi allies, Walking with the Enemy is the latest big-screen effort to shed light on a little-known story of Second World War -era heroism. Looking very different than he did as a Sikh driving instructor in the TIFF entry Learning to Drive, Sir Ben Kingsley stars as Regent Miklos Horthy, an admiral and statesman who was initially enthused about his country’s part in the Third Reich’s campaign to redraw the maps of Europe. Yet such was his reticence about any further participation in Hitler’s war machine — as well as the liquidation of the Jewish population — he tried to broker a secret deal with the Allies, a move that provoked the Germans to seize control of Hungary and arrest Horthy.
The movie’s other prime mover is a fictional character based on Pinchas Rosenbaum, a Hungarian Jew who saved countless people’s lives by arranging for their safe passage while in disguise as a member of Hungary’s fascist group. He also made good use of a uniform he took from a dead Nazi officer.
A first feature by American filmmaker Mark Schmidt, Walking with the Enemy opens at the Carlton Cinemas Friday. Big in Bollywood + Root Hog or Die: Though plenty busy as a TIFF venue through the weekend, the Bloor heads straight back into its busy September slate with two oneoff screenings early next week. Showing Monday at 6:30 p.m., Big in Bollywood recounts the strange-buttrue tale of a struggling American actor who became a megastar in India after landing a role in a hit comedy. Then on Tuesday at 9:15 p.m., an icon of the indie comics world gets his due in Root Hog or Die, director Dan Stafford’s profile of Chicago’s John Porcellino — the Beguiling copresents the event, which includes a post-screening Q&A with Stafford and Porcellino and a book signing for Porcellino’s latest opus, The Hospital Suite. jandersonesque@gmail.com