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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Steal a Pencil for Me

EMAILPRINTSeventh Art Releasing

Steal a Pencil for Me reviews
69
10.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Michèle Ohayon

Directed by: Michèle Ohayon

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 9, 2007

Running Time: 94 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Jeroen Krabbé, Jack Polak, Ina Soep, and Ellen Ten Damme

It's 1943, and Holland is under Nazi occupation. At a birthday party in Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, meets Ina, a 20-year-old beauty from a wealthy family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack's pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse. When the Jews are being deported, husband, wife, and lover find themselves at the same concentration camp, living in the same barracks. When Jack's wife objects to the "girlfriend" in spite of their unhappy marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Steal a Pencil for Me is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award nominee Michele Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering. (Seventh Art Releasing)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Leba Hertz

A terrific documentary about forbidden love in the most heinous of places.

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88

TV Guide Ken Fox

Amazingly, many of Jack's and Ina's letters survived and -- read aloud by Dutch actors Jeroen Krabbe and Ellen Ten Damme -- serve as the thematic thread that runs through Ohayon's film.

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83

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Gentle study in human resilience and luck.

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80

Film Threat Zack Haddad

If you enjoy learning about the Holocaust and how dark a time it was, or you just like a good love story, then check this documentary out.

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75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

If Michele Ohayon's absorbing documentary didn't provide the proof, you'd never believe the story she tells about Holocaust survivors Jack Polak and Ina Soep.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Tells this most unusual love story with grace and compassion.

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70

Village Voice Ella Taylor

At once tender and tough-minded, Steal a Pencil for Me offers a useful corrective to the sentimental prevailing notion that the Shoah only happened to saints.

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70

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

There have been dozens of Holocaust documentaries, and one could well argue that the world doesn't need another. But Michèle Ohayon's Steal a Pencil for Me offers a simple human story of dignity, levity and romance.

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70

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

What makes Ms. Ohayon’s movie special is its recognition that epic horrors don’t erase private dramas.

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67

The Onion (A.V. Club) Staff (Not credited)

There's incredible feeling behind Steal A Pencil For Me--enough to sustain two lives throughout unimaginable hardship--but the film doesn't bring much of it to the surface.

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60

Variety Joe Leydon

Fortunately, helmer Michele Ohayon ("Cowboy del Amor") treats her tricky subject matter with sufficient sensitivity to keep doc from ever seeming offensively flip or overly sentimental.

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30

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Although their love is undeniably a blessing, I was disconcerted watching the elderly couple smile and chuckle today as they recall their daily letters and secret meetings in the midst of such wide-scale death.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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