Defiance

Defiance is a 2008 American war film directed by Edward Zwick set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick was based on Nechama Tec's 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, an account of the eponymous group led by Polish Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War. The film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, Liev Schreiber as Zus Bielski, Jamie Bell as Asael Bielski, and George MacKay as Aron Bielski. Production began in early September 2007. After a limited release in the United States (e.g. Los Angeles and New York City) on December 31, 2008, it went into general release worldwide in January and February 2009. Plot In August 1941, Nazi Germany's are sweeping through Eastern Europe systematically killing European Jews. Among the survivors not restricted to ghettoes are the Jewish Bielski brothers: Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron. Their parents are dead, killed by local under orders from the German occupiers. The brothers flee to the Naliboki forest, vowing to avenge the deaths of their parents. The brothers encounter other Jewish escapees hiding in the forest and take them under their protection and leadership. Tuvia kills the chief responsible for his parents' deaths. Over the next year, they shelter a growing number of refugees, raiding local farms for food and supplies and moving their camp whenever they are discovered. The Bielski brothers stage raids on the Germans and their collaborators. Casualties cause Tuvia to reconsider this approach because of the risk to the hiding Jews. Rivalry between the two eldest brothers, Tuvia and Zus, fuels a disagreement between them about their future; as winter approaches Zus decides to leave the camp and join a local company of Soviet partisans, while his older brother, Tuvia, remains with the camp as their leader. An arrangement is made between the two groups in which the Soviet partisans agree to protect the Jewish camp in exchange for supplies.