And the violins stopped playing DVD 1988 A true story / An Odyssey Best Seller / Directed by Alexander Ramati / Starring: Horst Buchholz, Piotr Polk, Marne Maitland, Jan Machulski / The tragedies and atrocities of the Holocaust that everyone chose to forget

UPC 5018011201267  /  ODX20126

MADE IN EU

REGION 2 PAL DVD

Audio:  English 2.0

Runtime: 128 minutes

CONDITION OF THIS DVD IS USED - VERY GOOD!!!

English Summary:

And the Violins Stopped Playing (Polish: I Skrzypce Przestały Grać) (1988) is a Polish/American historical drama film written produced and directed by Alexander Ramati and based upon his biographical novel about an actual group of Romani people.

The story opens in 1941 in Warsaw, Poland, with Dymitr Mirga (Horst Buchholz), a prominent Gypsy violin player, entertaining a group of Germans -- German military and SS officers -- in a restaurant. The Germans enjoy the entertainment and assure the musicians that the ongoing removal of the region's Jews has nothing to do with the Romani because they are "Aryan" just like the Germans. Dymitr takes his family by train to Brest Litovsk as he is warned by an escape from a concentration camp as to what is happening to Warsaw's Jews. The family joins a band of Gypsies on the outskirts of Brest-Litovsk. The local German commander visits the camp and tells the Gypsies that he is giving them the houses where the Jews lived who have been "re-located" (a euphemism for sending them to concentration camps). Dymitr immediately realizes the truth, and asks the head of the Gypsy community to lead its evacuation into Hungary, which at that time was still independent. The leader is reluctant to comply, and the community's council eventually forces him to resign, giving his position instead to Dymitr Mirga. The son of the deposed leader had been betrothed to a beautiful Romani named Zoya Natkin (Maya Ramati), who instead chose to marry Dymitr's son, Roman (Piotr Polk).

Cast:

• Horst Buchholz as Dymitr Mirga
• Piotr Polk as Roman Mirga
• Marne Maitland as Sandu Mirga
• Jan Machulski as Col. Krüger
• Aleksander Bardini as Greczko Szura
• Jerzy Nowak as DoctorProfessor Epstein
• Wladyslaw Komar as Dombrowski
• Wiktor Zborowski as Tomasz
• Aleksander Ford as Zenon
• Didi Ramati as Wala Mirga
• Maya Ramati as Zoya Natkin/Mirga
• Kasia Siwak as Mara Mirga

• Bettine Milne as Rosa Mirga
• Aldona Grochal as Wala's Sister
• Wieslaw Wójcik as Bora Natkin
• Ernestyna Winnicka as Zoya's mother
• Marcin Tronski as Dr. Josef Mengele
• Zitto Kazann as Mikita
• Wojciech Pastuszko as Koro
• Jacek Sas-Uhrynowski as Pawel
• Marek Barbasiewicz as Count Paszkowski
• Krzysztof Swietochowski as Franko
• Judy Hecht Dumontet as Zenon's wife
• Ewa Telega as Ira