Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Kirpianuscus the films about Shoah are many. but "Toyland" is different. for its intensity. for its switch. for the exploration of an explanation and a fundamental decision. and, sure, for something who remains out of words. because it is a film about hope. and about miracle in a form who seems so easy to define than remains deep way impressive. a mother, her son, theirs neighbors.and a piano. nothing more but enough for a so intense film, profound provocative, than it becomes a serious challenge for the viewer. to become himself. in better version.

anaclara-romero Toyland review, with spoilers.This is a dramatic movie. The lead roles were played by a mother, called Marianne, her son, called Heinrich, and her son's friend (a Jewish boy). The supporting characters were played by the Jewish boy's father and mother. It was set in a train station and block of flats. The movie had good acting, in two very strong scenes. One was the part where Marianne pretended that David was her son, risking to be discovered by the Nazis and also when his parents decided to give him to Marianne, knowing that doing this will save his life, even though it was a terrible pain, for them, to see her son with another mother. I think that is a great demonstration of love they have in their family. It shows the Jewish people's suffering in the war.The plot was about a child who lived in Germany in 1942 and he had a Jewish friend, called David. They played the piano together and spent a lot of time together. Heinrich, the German boy, insistently asked her mother where his friend was going to. She finally answered that he was going to Toyland because his Jewish father had a new job. Heinrich mother's said "Toyland" since she didn't want to say "concentration camp". Her son wanted to go to Toyland with his Jewish fiend because he thought it was a place full of toys and they could have fun there. One day Marianne didn't find her son and she looked for him very nervously but she couldn't find him in his bedroom. She went to the street and asked the police for him and then she went running to the train station. There, she talked to the soldiers and then they went to a wagon. There she didn't find Heinrich but she found David and she saved him because if she didn't do it, the Jewish boy would have died in the concentration camp. Then she went back to her house with Heinrich's friend and the three of them lived together.

synergy386 I just saw Spielzeugland and recognized the whole plot almost from the beginning. I am positive I've seen it before, or read it. Does anyone else remember it? There was a Q&A with the writer and he didn't mention getting the plot from somewhere else. Anyone out there know this story from a maybe book or a t.v. show? That said, I did find it very moving and upsetting. The actress who played the mother did a fine job, as did the piano teacher. People may say holocaust-themed movies are overdone, but I don't think so; that era needs to be kept alive in peoples' minds so that it doesn't fade into oblivion as the final survivors die out. It's hard to believe the entire film is only l4 minutes long.

anhedonia "Toyland" is a film that works so brilliantly that it managed to be powerful, thought-provoking and even gut-wrenching than most Hollywood films that are 8 to 10 times longer. With sparse dialogue, director Jochen Alexander Freydank keeps us hooked throughout this superb short film.Set during the Holocaust, a German woman frantically searches for her son, who might have decided to accompany his Jewish neighbors to a Nazi concentration camp because the Jewish family's young son and her son are best friends.The film is elegantly shot and wonderfully acted. There is more poignancy and true emotion in this film than I have seen in most Hollywood films in recent times.Director Freydank moves his story along, with us always wondering not only what comes next but how this is going to end. And then comes the denouement: A truly remarkable twist that says much about the human spirit. It is a moment that will break your heart while simultaneously make you smile.If you have the chance to see this, and the other Oscar-nominated live action shorts, do yourself a favor and watch them. Believe me, it will be time much better spent than, say, on "New In Town" or most any other mainstream Hollywood film.