Everything Is Illuminated (film)

Everything Is Illuminated
Everything Is Illuminated movie poster
Directed by	Liev Schreiber
Produced by	Marc Turtletaub Peter Saraf Matthew Stillman
Screenplay by	Liev Schreiber
Based on	Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer
Starring	Elijah Wood Eugene Hütz Boris Leskin Laryssa Lauret
Music by	Paul Cantelon Sergei Shnurov
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Edited by	Andrew Marcus Craig McKay
Distributed by	Warner Independent Pictures
Release dates	September 16, 2005 (2005-09-16)
Running time	104 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English, Russian, Ukrainian
Budget	$7,000,000
Box office	$3,601,974

Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 biographical drama film, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, and was the debut film of Liev Schreiber both as a director and as a screenwriter.

Plot

Jonathan Foer, (Elijah Wood) a young American Jew, goes on a quest to find the woman, Augustina, sister of Lista (Laryssa Lauret), who saved his grandfather during the Holocaust in a small Ukrainian town called Trachimbrod that was wiped off the map when the Nazis liquidated Eastern European shtetls. His guides are a cranky, anti-semitic grandfather (Boris Leskin); his deranged Border collie named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.; and his over-enthusiastic grandson, Alex (Eugene Hutz), whose fractured command of English, passion for American pop culture, and constant chatter threaten to make the worst of every situation. The guides are not very knowledgeable about the subject of finding Jews, and usually just attempt to scam them by taking them on long journeys, however after hearing about Jonathan's compelling story, they decide they actually want to help him. After traveling through much of rural Ukraine they eventually find Augustina's sister, who leads them to where Augustina was killed by Nazi soldiers after her father refused to spit on the Torah. The grandfather kills himself after it was revealed he was Jewish and managed to survive the war himself. His suicide was portrayed as more of a relief than a tragedy. Jonathan returns home after saying farewell to his new friend Alex.

Music

The score for Everything Is Illuminated features eight original tracks composed by Paul Cantelon, along with songs by Russian ska punk band Leningrad, Arkady Severny, Csókolom, Tin Hat Trio, and Gogol Bordello, whose lead singer plays Alex. The band members of Gogol Bordello play the band in the train station where the character Alex has come to meet his US client, Jonathan Foer. DeVotchKa's single "How It Ends" is featured in the trailer, but not in the official soundtrack.

Critical response

American Chronicle recounted the film as one of the "rare films that encapsulate the emotion of discovery and drama with humor", while Time Out called it "an unbelievably assured debut as a director". Roger Ebert praised the film and gave it 3 and a half stars out of 4, and went to see it a second time 'to better understand the journey it takes'.

Box office

The film lost money at the box office, as the gross receipts never surpassed even the small budget of the production.

Awards

• 2005: Lanterna Magica Prize: Venice Film Festival: Liev Schreiber
• 2005: Biografilm Award: Venice Film Festival: Liev Schreiber
• 2005: Best Screenplay: São Paulo International Film Festival: Liev Schreiber

External links

• Official website
• Everything Is Illuminated at IMDb
• Everything Is Illuminated at AllMovie
• Everything Is Illuminated at Rotten Tomatoes
• Everything Is Illuminated at Metacritic
• Everything Is Illuminated at Box Office Mojo