''Jonah Who Lived in the Whale'' ( it, Jona che visse nella balena), in the United States released as (''Look to the Sky'') is a 1993 Italian-French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Roberto Faenza Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943) is an Italian film director. Born in Turin in 1943, Faenza received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Career Faenza made his directing debut in 1968 ...

, based on the

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. ...

by the writer

Jona Oberski Jona Eliëser Joseph Oberski (20 March 1938) is a Dutch writer, and a nuclear physicist. A year before his birth, his parents escaped from Nazi Germany to the Netherlands, and settled in Amsterdam. But when World War II broke out, the country wa ...

entitled ''Childhood'' (Dutch: ''Kinderjaren''), focused on the drama of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. It was entered into the

18th Moscow International Film Festival The 18th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 1 to 12 July 1993. The Golden St. George was awarded to the French-Belarusian film ''Me Ivan, You Abraham'' directed by Yolande Zauberman. Jury * Claude Lelouch (France – President of t ...

, where it won the Prix of Ecumenical Jury.

Plot

Jonah is a three-year-old Dutch boy who lives in Amsterdam during the Second World War. After the occupation of the city by the Germans, he was deported to the concentration camp together with his entire family in 1942. Here Jonah will spend the remainder of the war in a shack with his mother, but separated from his father. The child suffers cold, hunger, fear, deprivation, and even harassment by the other boys. He seldom encounters compassion: only the cook, who later dies, and the doctor of the clinic show him kindness. The fate of Jonah's parents is tragic: his father dies of exhaustion from being overworked and his mother succumbs in a hospital after the end of the war, having been driven insane by her ordeal and her husband's death. However, Jonah survives and, back to Amsterdam, is adopted in his father's employer home where, after an initial period of suffering, he regains the will to live. Many years after the war Jonah has become a nuclear physicist, gets married, and has three sons.

Cast

Jean-Hugues Anglade Jean-Hugues Anglade (born 29 July 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, known for his roles as Eric in ''Killing Zoe'', Zorg in ''Betty Blue'' and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita in ''Nikita''. Personal life Anglade was born i ...

as The Father *

Juliet Aubrey Juliet Emma Aubrey (born 17 December 1966) is a British actress of theatre, film, and television. She won the 1995 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for playing Dorothea in the BBC serial ''Middlemarch'' (1994). She is also known for her role as ...

as The Mother * Jenner Del Vecchio as Jonah (older) * Luke Petterson as Jonah (young) *

Francesca De Sapio Francesca De Sapio (16 August 1945) is an Italian actress and acting coach, best-known as the young Carmela Corleone in ''The Godfather Part II'' (1974). The daughter of an architect, she was born in Rome. After her father's work took him to th ...

Simona Faceva Simona may refer to: * 1033 Simona, a main-belt asteroid * Simona (given name), a feminine given name of Hebrew origin * ''Simona'' (TV series), a 2018 Argentine telenovela * ''Simona'' (cicada), a genus of cicadas See also * Simon (disambiguati ...

Djoko Rosic Djoko may refer to: * An alternative spelling of Joko or Jaka, a Javanese male name * An alternative spelling of Đoko (a diminutive of the name Đorđe (Anglicanized as "George")), a Serbian male given name See also * Đoković, a Serbian su ...

Alexandrina Bojlova Alexandrina may refer to: *Alexandrina (name), a female name *Lakes: **Lake Alexandrina (South Australia) **Lake Alexandrina, New Zealand *Alexandrina Council, a local government area covering land on the west side of Lake Alexandrina in South Aust ...

References

External links

* 1993 films 1993 drama films Italian drama films French drama films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Roberto Faenza Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films shot in Bulgaria 1990s Italian films 1990s French films {{1990s-drama-film-stub