Ishai golan biography of christopher

One reason I think World War II stories still carry such power is because they — unfortunately for us all — connect so well with today. Just look at what’s happening in the Middle East right now, and it seems like the importance of stressing kindness over hatred is a lesson that still needs to be learned.

That’s the simple story of “White Bird,” about Sara, a teenage Jewish girl living in France who is protected by an outcast boy with a disability. In a swift passage of time, she goes from one of the most popular girls in the school, someone who looks down upon this lad like everyone else, to the lowest of the low, literally chased as vermin by the Nazis and their French collaborators.

It stars Helen Mirren, though she’s only really around in the beginning and the end (plus narrating), playing modern-day Sara in her 90s, now a celebrated painter receiving a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In addition to this event, she has come to town to tell her story to her grandson, Julien (Bryce Gheisar), who is going through a tough time as a new student at Yates Academy, an elite preparatory school.

It’s clear she feels the youngster needs to learn about the importance of kindness, and the best way to do that is by relating

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