The Will to Survive

I have a liking for stories of survival in the midst of incredible odds and The Island on Bird Street is one that moved my soul.  Alex, his father and uncle, Boruch, live in German occupied Poland during World War II.  The German soldiers are emptying the ghetto and transporting people on trains to be taken away to concentration camps.  It's during one of these raids with all the commotion surrounding him that Alex finds himself separated from his father and alone in the ghetto fighting for his very existence.  He ends up in an abandoned, bombed up building on Bird Street that becomes his shelter and hiding place.

He encounters various characters in the ghetto that come and go, but throughout, his constant companion is Snow, his itty-bitty and intelligent pet mouse.  Alex must hunt for food all the while keeping himself hidden from the soldiers.  His main objective besides his will to survive is to be reunited with his missing father.

Jordan Kiziuk plays Alex in the movie and does a marvelous job.  Alex is a child that has seen and felt it all, hunger, devastation, hatred, greed, selfishness, murder and utter isolation in a time of one of the worst wars in human history.  I was drawn in immediately with his innocent and sad eyes, his beautiful smile, his infectious laugh and Alex melted and won my heart completely.  I loved this movie.  

The Island on Bird Street was written in 1985 byUri Orlev, an Israeli author.