Based on the novel by Anne Michaels, FUGITIVE PIECES is a lyrical sometimes moving film about loss, love and redemption.  Directed by Jeremy Podeswa (he last made the Cannes hit, THE FIVE SENSES in 1999), the film is beautifully shot, slow paced and full of flashbacks and inter-cut stories.  After witnessing his parents’ murder and sister’s abduction, young Jakob Beer is rescued and moved to Greece by archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia). 

When Jakob (Stephen Dillane) grows up, he and Attos emigrate to Canada, where Jakob comes to terms with his loss and falls in love.  All this is fine, but the flashbacks are at times too many with flashback inter-cuts sometimes causing some confusion.  The narrative contains too many conveniences - the job Attos has at the University of Toronto; the girl Jacob meets to rekindle his feeling; the new neighbours being Jewish and also musically inclined etc.  If one is to complain that too many films have already been made on the holocaust, Podeswa’s film has the answer to that in a line of dialogue that insists that all those who have lived through those times have to tell their story, as human beings.

Please note that this review is based on the original Toronto International Film Festival version.  The film has been re-edited for commercial release.