Defiance: A Film Inspired By Bielski Partisan

Defiance

Defiance is a movie inspired by the Bielski Partisan, a jewish resistance group set in Belarus. The movie tells the story of the Bielski brothers and the Bielski camp, as they challenge German Nazi authority and defy the role that was set out for them; death is conquered by the strength of people and the desire to live and help others. Defiance is a very historically accurate depiction of the events, characters and settings of the events.

In 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet union and carried out massive attacks on the local people. One of these places being Belarus where they burned down the small villages they came across. Among turning the towns into dust bowls they also confined people to labor camp and ghettos. Refusing and

failing to evacuate the premises on time were slaughtered by the German Nazis with no sign of mercy. Often times these places would be left without a single person left to live. The Bielski family was greatly affected by the Germans and the raids. The movie is great at staying true to the real story as its first scene depicts the events of the massive attacks the Germans inflicted on the Belarus jewish and the death of most of the Bielski family. It can also be noted that the movie stays true to the deaths of the family by only keeping alive the four brothers that actually survived the true attacks.
The eldest Bielski brothers also lost their families to the German Nazis and this is not a topic spared in the movie but most importantly they develop the relationships with their “forest wives” something important to the story as it leads to greater factors of their life after the war. The movie does not spare any detail from their lives.
With the coming of the wives came also the implication of the views that the camp had towards pregnancy. Belskis greatly discouraged pregnancy as it would make their survival harder. And abortions were often prefered in the indication of pregnancy. In a scene a pregnant woman claims that if she is to tell Tuvia of her pregnancy he will take it away, while this scene can not be proven to have actually occurred it does present the ideals of the camp in an impactful way. As director Edward Zwick stated in a New York Times article “ the movie is not meant to be a biography.”
The movie also demonstrates tactics the Bielski Partisans used to resist the germans. One of those being the attacks the camp made on local farmers who decided to betray/ kill jews. In the movie Zus is enraged by the death of his family and caused terror and death to the local farmers. The Bielski Partisans did show this attitude of “ blood for blood” and it extended to police officers also. The movies capability to capture events like this only added to how real to life it felt.
In the summer of 1943 a reward of ten-thousand was put out for leads to Tuvias where abouts.

A military troop of two-thousand was sent out to the Naliboki Forest area. In the movie Zus and Tuvia have the dilemma of killing a poor milkman as he might give out their location. This was a constant fear of the Bielski.

The camp was often looking for ways to help more jews. They would create missions to make it easier for Jews to escape the ghettos. The movie does not miss this detail as it offers a scene of the camp warriors going into a ghetto and rescuing other jews.

The great people that formed the Bielski family were described as natural born leaders. Tuvia was indeed the leader of the pack just like the movie depicted it. The movie also shows Tuvias true character as he did indeed believe that they should rescue as many jews as possible. His true noble character shines through in the movie while also retaining his tough manner as Edward Zwick (film director) describes that the brothers were often depicted as “blocks of wood.” Defiance defined the brothers just as they were represented in real life; strong, whole hearted leaders. In an interview with the writers of Defiance they express that the children of these heroes could not notice anything wrong with the depiction of their fathers as it was their true

character.
The filming of Defiance is set in the border of Lithium, right were the brothers set out their camps.

The film stay so true to the story that they even film thew the winter there, as to give it a more realistic feel of what the true camp had to endure. Along with this it shows the harsh food conditions of the snowing climate. The movie also does a great job in its assembly of the camps it comes through with most of its utilities such as a school for kids and camouflaged dugouts for sleeping.

Along with the filming the movie also took the interest to use artifacts from the time period like the weapons used in the movie for battle. And was true to the style of clothing at the time. The movie showed a great deal of attention to the era.

It could be argued that the movie took too much freedom in scription the movie, however, the events shown in the movie were all very accurate. Also, in coming up with the dialect and mindset of the characters it can only be inferred what was discussed as there was no one to give out a clear statement of the Bielski brothers except the brothers

themselves.
Defiance is a movie that reflects the real lives of the Bielski brothers and the Bielski Partisans. While it may not represent the story word by word, it does a good job on reflection the events of this incredible and heroic people. Defiance has an accurate depiction of the real life events in the Belarus woods.