The Devil's Arithmetic - 1999 - Showtime

Format                                   : Matroska
Format version                           : Version 2
File size                                : 928 MiB
Duration                                 : 1h 37mn
Nominal bit rate                         : 1 000 Kbps
Width                                    : 712 pixels
Height                                   : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 4:3
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Writing library                          : x264 core 120
Language                                 : English
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179148/
 
http://image.bayimg.com/9b18fed41c501671841ed1005eb986787afa9d10.jpg
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil's_Arithmetic_(film)

Kirsten Dunst as Hannah Stern /Chaya Abramowicz
Brittany Murphy as Rivka
Paul Freeman as Rabbi
Mimi Rogers as Leonore Stern
Louise Fletcher as Aunt Eva
Daniel Brocklebank as Shmuel
Shelly Skandrani as Leah
Philip Rham as The Commandant
Daniel Rausch as Steinbach

(Film Version, the book is a little different) Hannah Stern is a young Jewish girl living in the present day (time of publication: 1980s). She is bored by her relative's stories about the past, is not looking forward to the Passover Seder, and is tired of her religion. When Hannah symbolically opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she is transported back in time to 1942 Poland, during World War II. At that time and place, the people believe she is Chaya Abramowicz, who is recovering from cholera, the fever that killed Chaya's parents a few months ago. The strange remarks Hannah/Chaya makes about the future and her inability to recognize her "aunt" Gitl and "uncle" Shmuel are blamed on the fever.

At her "uncle's" wedding, the Nazis come to transport the entire population of the village to a concentration camp near Donavin, and only Hannah knows all the terrors they will face: starvation, mistreatment, forced labor, and finally execution. She struggles to survive at the camp, with the help of a girl named Rivka. Uncle Shmuel and some other men try to escape; the men are caught. Gitl and Hannah return to their barracks and Yitzchak is shot. Fayge, who was going to be married to Shmuel, is killed because she runs to Shmuel when he is about to be shot with the men that were caught.

Later, when Hannah, Rivka, Esther, and Shifre are working, a guard overhears them talking instead of working. Shifre tries to reassure the guard they have been working, but he takes them anyway and leaves Hannah by herself. As the three are about to leave, Hannah takes Rivka's place by putting on her babushka(a head scarf thing). Since the guards don't know their faces, this goes unnoticed by the officer. The women are led to the gas chamber. Hannah is seen amongst the dead, with an eleven-year-old boy they had cared for in her arms. She is then transported back to her family's Seder. She asks for her Aunt Eva and calls her Rivka. She looked at her number; it was the same as Rivkah's.

Hannah (when she was Chaya) was really the woman she was named after, Rivka was Aunt Eva, and Rivka's brother, Wolfe, was Grandpa Will. (Aunt Eva said that they changed their names when they got to America).