Fugitive Pieces

Fugitive Pieces, based on the acclaimed best-seller by Anne Michaels, tells the story of a seven-year-old Jewish-Polish boy, Jakob Beer (played, as an adult, by Stephen Dillane). Jakob witnesses the massacre of his family and the abduction of his sister, Bella by Nazi soldiers in the Second World War. But he survives and is rescued by a Greek geologist, Athos Roussos (Rade Serbedzija), who takes him to his native island of Zakynthos. Years later, the two move to Toronto after Athos accepts a university post. Jakob embarks on marriage, first to the animated and exhilarating Alex (Rosamund Pike), but the marriage doesn’t work and they are divorced. Later in life he marries again. Written and directed by Jeremy Podeswa who spent over 6 years crafting the highly poetic novel into a screenplay, the movie features an international cast and was shot in Toronto and Greece on a budget of $10-million US dollars. Quoted in an article in the Globe and Mail, producer Robert Lantos said, “This story cuts through religious, ethnic and cultural divides. It’s a story in which the most noble of human instincts overcomes the horrors around it.”