Edward Zwick · 2008 · survival

Edward Zwick's 2008 film, based on a true story. When the Nazis murder their parents in 1941, the Bielski brothers flee into the dense Naliboki forest of Belarus, where they build a hidden community that shelters more than a thousand Jews through the war. Hunted by German patrols and the harsh winter, they move ever deeper into the wild, choosing survival and defiance over despair.

1. 1
   Novogrudok

   The Belarusian town whose Jewish community is destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators, driving the Bielski brothers to flee into the forest with nothing but a pistol and their grief.

2. 2
   Naliboki Forest

   The vast, swampy woodland where the brothers gather survivors into a hidden camp - a whole society of refugees living under the trees, defended against German sweeps.

3. 3
   The deep forest

   Deeper into the wilderness the community retreats as the Germans close in, crossing a marsh in a desperate exodus to keep more than a thousand people alive until liberation.