DEFIANCE 87
the pale sun began to fade by 3. Despite our sophisticated outerwear, we were
always cold.” But Zwick was always cognizant that the real people being depicted
had had it far worse: “Yet for three long winters, with subzero temperatures and a
mind- numbing wind off the Baltic that brought Hitler’s assault on Rus sia to a frost-
bitten halt, the Bielski partisans wrapped themselves in skins and rags, braved
starvation and dug burrows into the hillsides, living like moles” (Zwick, 2008, AR7).
The shoot began in late August 2007 and wrapped in early December so Daniel
Craig could move on to his next job, reprising his role as James Bond in Quantum
of Solace.
Plot Summary
The film opens with an on- screen notation: “A true story.” It is August 1941, and
Nazi einsatzgruppen (task forces) are systematically killing Jews throughout the
Eastern Eu ro pean territories just conquered by the Wehrmacht. Those who are not
among the dead or left to strug gle in ghettos include the Polish Jewish Bielski
brothers: Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael ( Jamie Bell), and Aron
(George MacKay). Their parents have been killed off by the police, who acted under
the influence of German commands. Vowing to avenge their parents, the Bielski
brothers retreat to the primeval Naliboki Forest in northwestern Belarus. The
brothers discover other Jews attempting to escape the Germans and take on a lead-
ership role among them. The brothers spend the next year protecting and caring
for an ever- growing population of refugees, moving their location any time that
the local police discover their whereabouts. During this time, Tuvia murders the
Belarus sian police captain (Sigitas Rackys) who carried out his parents’ deaths and
also eliminates the captain’s sons (Vaidas Kublinskas and Valentin Novopolskij)
when they try to stop the attack. The brothers stage small- scale raids and
ambushes on the German soldiers, but Tuvia is pained by the Jewish casualties
and considers a dif fer ent approach. Tuvia and Zus disagree about how to proceed
as fighting in the forest continues. Zus sees the defeat of the German militia as a
primary and all- important goal that supersedes surviving the German occupation.
Zus sees Tuvia’s “politics of diplomacy” as too soft and chooses to join a Soviet unit,
though the transition isn’t a smooth one. The Soviet unit has preconceived notions
about Jewish soldiers that Zus is forced to rail against. Tuvia (“Our revenge is to
live”) defends his ever- growing camp and deals with such hardships as starvation,
disease, and in- fighting among camp members. Zus’s new Soviet unit makes a pact
with Tuvia’s camp, agreeing to protect the Jewish camp members in exchange for
supplies. Following a difficult winter, the camp discovers that the Germans have
hit upon their location and are planning a large- scale attack. When the Soviets
withdraw their support, the Jews are forced to flee their camp just as German
dive- bombers begin their attack. Asael and a small group of fellow camp members
attempt to hold the Germans off, but they are unable to adequately defend their
ground. Almost the entire small group perishes in the attack. When the situation
seems hopeless, Zus and his partisan troops attack the Germans from behind, leav-
ing the Soviets to rescue the Jewish camp. The surviving camp members flee to
the forest, and on- screen text states that the group grew to 1,200 people who