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SOD HAGIBOR

This student film brings to life the historical heroic deeds of Max Schmeling. The black and white sections give it the "feel" of the WWII era which it represents. It demonstrates the choices that people made during the holocaust to harbor Jews and the risks it entailed. Though the acting is a bit stilted and comes across as a stage play at times, it's an admirable attempt by middle school students. It is based on the true story about Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling who was a German boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in the late 1930s transcended boxing and became worldwide social events because of their national associations. Despite his supposed associations with Nazism, it became known long after the war that Schmeling had risked his own life to save the lives of two Jewish children in 1938.

This film is based on an original student screenplay written by an eighth grader. It tells the story of German boxing legend Max Schmeling hiding two Jewish boys during the early stages of the Holocaust, and his refusal to join the Nazi party.