Train of Life

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Train of Life
original movie poster
Directed by	Radu Mihăileanu
Written by	Radu Mihăileanu
Starring	Lionel Abelanski, Rufus, Agathe de la Fontaine
Release date(s)	5 September 1998
Running time	103 minutes
Language	French, German
IMDb profile

Train of Life (in French Train de Vie) is a 1998 French language tragicomedy film. It tells the story of a Jewish village's plan to escape the Holocaust. Some of their members pretend to be Nazis in order to ostensibly transport them to a concentration camp, when in actuality, they are going to Israel (Palestine).

The movie starts off with a man, named Schlomo, running crazily through a forest, with his voice playing in the background, saying that he has seen the horror of the Nazis in a nearby French town, and he must tell the others. Once he gets into town, he informs the rabbi, and together they run through the town and once they have got enough people together, they hold a town meeting. At first, many of the men do not believe the horrors they are being told, and many criticize Schlomo, for he is the town lunatic, and who could possibly believe him? But the rabbi believes him, and then they try to tackle the problem of the coming terrors. Amidst the pondering and the arguing, Schlomo suggests that they build a train, so they can escape, and so, the Train of Life is born.