JUMBO CORSSWORD
Disney+’s intimate epic WWII drama impresses
ACROSS
1 Severe (5)
4 Foolish and unproductive
quest (4,5,4)
11 Hinge (5)
14 Sufficient (5)
15 Amused (11)
16 No pearls (anag)(8) 19 Canadian police officer
(7)
20 Confess to (5)
21 Most gloomy (9)
24 Filled tortilla served with
chilli sauce (9)
26 Unesco (anag)(6) 27 Making an attempt (6) 31 Prize money (5) 32 Qualified to be chosen (8) 34 Air around the Earth (10) 38 Lawlessness (7)
39 US state (6)
40 West Indian music style
(6)
41 Chimed (4)
42 Scaffold (7)
45 Pickled cabbage (10)
50 Pestered (7) 54 Engrave with acid (4) 55 Writer (6)
56 Linen square (6) 57 Rubbed on (7) 60 Affection (10) 61 Deteriorated (8) 62 Wheeled boot (5) 65 Fold mark (6) 66 Problematic (6) 67 Impacting upon (9) 72 Sextant user (9) 73 Rise (5)
74 Victory (7)
79 Most weighty (8) 80 Unwilling to believe (11) 81 Less (5)
82 Getting done (5)
83 A goad guaranteed to infuriate (1,3,3,2,1,4) 84 List of contents (5)
DOWN
2 Shared (6)
3 Claw (5)
5 Public houses (4) 6 Feared (7) 7 Procure (6)
8 Peel (4)
9 Glade (8)
10 Eye protector (6) 11 Added message (10) 12 Climbing plant (4) 13 Relating (7) 17 Coastline recess (5) 18 Sealed against leakage (10)
22 With cunning (5) 23 Ability to read and write (8)
25 Breathing hole (7) 26 Tapering stone pillar (7) 28 Old coin (6) 29 Scrape (6) 30 Musical composition (6) 33 Tropical fruit (5) 35 Sidled slowly (5) 36 Masticate (4)
37 Vicinity (4) 42 Welcome (5) 43 Certificated (8) 44 Boxer's helper (6) 45 Current of air behind moving vehicle (10) 46 Utilised (4) 47 Absconder (7) 48 Write-up (6) 49 Combine (5)
51 Back of the neck (4) 52 Waterproof garment (7) 53 Puts up (6) 58 Talking into (10) 59 High temperature (5) 63 Sailing ship (8) 64 Night lights (5) 65 Squashed (7) 68 Admirers' group (3,4) 69 Daytime nap (6) 70 Artist's workshop (6) 71 Coniferous tree (6) 75 Workers' organisation (5) 76 Hire-car (4)
77 Boast (4)
78 Tug (4)
While the production design, costuming and Susanna Fogel’s direction were topnotch, what set one of last year’s most under-rated series apart from the standard Hollywood World War II drama was its emphasis on character.
A Small Light used its seven-hour running time to deliver an adroit and absorbing tale that not only brilliantly brought to life the story of the famous Frank family – immortalised in daughter Anne’s diary – but showcased a fabulous turn by Bel Powley as an Amsterdam resident who helped them during the latter-half of hostilities – Miep Gies.
A year on and Disney+ has dropped another excellent and potentially engrossing intimate epic set during that turbulent time.
Based on the popular 2017 novel of the same name by Georgia Hunter (who was inspired by her own family’s travails), We Were The Lucky Ones is the eightpart journey of the eclectic Kurc siblings, a Polish Jewish quintet torn apart by Germany’s march through Europe and its leader Adolf Hitler’s genocidal plans.
After the briefest of frame-tale scenes set in a Red Cross Office in 1945, we are whisked back seven years to when the Kurcs gather at their parents’ home in Radom, Poland, to celebrate Passover.
As eldest Genek (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) offers relationship and career advice to youngest brother Jakob (Amit Rahav), their oldest sister Mila (Hadas Yaron) admits to starting to struggle with the physical effects of her pregnancy, while also admonishing the younger Halina (Joey King) for her flippancy and cheekiness, especially when she has the serious job of working as an assistant in the lab of Mila’s medical researcher husband Selim (Michael Aloni).
However, it’s Addy (Logan Lerman) who everyone wants to see. Despite training as an electrical engineer, he’s found a degree of fame as a composer, having moved to Paris to pursue his passion. Although he downplays his success as “one song on the radio”, Halina wryly observes that recognition brings certain advantages: “Minor celebrity softens even the worst antisemite.”
Mostly filled with easy banter and ribbing, their evening together only occasionally takes a serious turn, as Addy is brought up to date with the ongoing vandalism of the city’s Jewishowned stores and the news that more and more of their friends are leaving Europe because of Germany’s invasion of Austria and the regime’s violence towards the latter’s Jewish citizens.
“Radom is not Germany,” the Kurcs’ patriarch and dressmaking boutique owner, Sol (Lior Ashkenazi), says, citing the reasons for the latest to depart as more because “there are 40 bakeries in town, business is down and they don’t like competition”.
Cut to a year later and Czechoslovakia has failed to resist the Nazis, while Addy is uninvited to Passover, advised to stay in France by his mother Nechuma (Robin Weigert), as a second major conflict in just over two decades seems inevitable.
“I’m tired of war already and it hasn’t even begun yet,” Genek opines, eventually revealing to his wife that he’s quit his job after being demoted, seemingly because of his heritage.
And while Halina has embarked on a secret romance with her parents’ latest boarder, architect Adam (Sam Woolf), she confides to him that she worries greatly about what the future holds – and her elders’ insistence on staying put.
“My parents kept Genek, Addy and Mila alive on scraps in the basement during the Great War. How do you convince someone things are bad, when they’ve already experienced the worst?”
Naturally things from there go pearshaped for the Kurcs, as the younger men go off to fight, Addy is isolated and those left behind find themselves forced out of their work and their homes.
While there are plenty of familiar narrative beats, showrunner Erica Lipez (The Morning Show, Bates Motel, Suits) does a terrific job of keeping the tension high and the drama taut, criss-crossing neatly between the plights of the various Kurcs so that it feels cohesive, rather than a successive series of set-pieces.
Having a cast of relative unknowns likewise suits the subject matter, though you can see why the luminous King (Independence Day: Resurgence, The Kissing Booth) and charismatic Lerman (Hunters, Shirley) were given key roles.
Each episode focuses on a different geographic location, as the privations and horrors ramp up, but Lucky Ones’ focus remains very much on one family’s experiences and the strength (and humour) they draw from one another during a testing time. It’s under-stated, introspective and thought-provoking drama that’s well worth seeking out.
We Were The Lucky Ones is available to stream on Disney+.