The Boy in The Woods: A True Story of Survival During WWII

By Liz Braun

Rating: B

The Boy in The Woods is a true story of survival during World War II.

Based on the bestselling book by Maxwell Smart, the film is written and directed by Rebecca Snow and concerns a Jewish adolescent in Eastern Poland who flees a Holocaust round-up. Separated from everyone and everything he knows, he lives out the war in hiding, in a forest.

The story begins in 1943 in Buczacz. Jett Klyne stars as Max, a boy of 12 living with his mother and sister. They await deportation and “resettlement,” and that day comes soon enough. Lined up with her children to be loaded onto trucks and taken to God-knows-where, Max’s mother (Katherine Fogler) suddenly urges her son to be brave and walk away from certain death.

In the moment, Max does exactly what his mother asks. He slips away, unnoticed.

Having escaped, he must then fend for himself.

Initially, his aunt helps him find a family that will hide him. That ends when the Nazis patrolling the countryside threaten death to anyone sheltering Jews. Max has to move into the forest and live by himself, although the farmer who tried to hide him (Richard Armitage) is careful to school the boy in rabbit-trapping and mushroom foraging so he can survive.

Once in his secret forest hideout, Max deals with intense loneliness but works hard to keep himself hidden. He occupies his mind by drawing with whatever materials are at hand, and when there’s nothing left to draw with, Max uses his imagination and a feather quill, and draws in the air.

In time, he crosses paths with Yanek (David Kohlsmith), another Jewish child trying to survive alone in the woods. In taking on the protection of this slightly younger boy, Max finds hope and the will to live.

Survival, however, does not constitute a happy ending.

The Boy in The Woods is a devastating story. As much as it is an historical account of survival, it’s also a character study of resilience and courage. In real life, Maxwell Smart eventually came to Canada as a war orphan and stayed here, fulfilling his ambition to be an artist.

Filmmaker Snow captures much of Max’s experience from a child’s point of view, particularly the forest environment — simultaneously forbidding and protective — in which he must survive.

The film is not perfect, but as Max, Klyne puts in a powerful performance as a young man who must live by his wits, even as he longs for his beloved mother and a childhood abruptly ended.

The Boy in The Woods. Written and directed by Rebecca Snow. Starring Jett Klyne, Richard Armitage, and David Kohlsmith. In theatres in Ontario and British Columbia on June 21, and across Canada this summer.