Toyland discusses a theme that has been discussed several times on different films: the Second World War. However, what makes this short film special is the sensibility of this portrait. Instead of showing the explicit violence of the war, it touches the audience by showing two kids - a German and a Jewish, who are best friends and are going to be separated because the Jewish boy's family is going to be sent to a concentration camp. In order to avoid shocking the young German boy, her mother says that his friend is going with his family to Toyland. The depiction of the effect of war through the eyes of kids is not something new: in a completely different tone, Janos Szasz has done the same in his adaptation of The Notebook, a novel written by Ágota Kristof; and The boy in the Striped Pyjamas has a similar story. However, even if the theme is not new, Toyland is still a surprisingly intense short film. It mixes scenes of the mother looking for her son after the Germans had taken the Jewish to the concentration camps and flashbacks of what happened before this - how close the two kids were and how the German boy decided to follow his friend to Toyland. And the plot twist at the end makes the story even more dramatic. Second World War is a sensitive topic, and it is amazing when we find a director that was able to portray it in such a touching way.
Review of Spielzeugland
