It is not necessary for a film to have any purpose other than to offer enjoyment for the viewer. Biopics in the mould of Europa Europa are not normal films though. Dramatic license remains a key component and yet, by their very nature, they claim to have some relationship with a past reality. Unlike the surreal distraction (or monotony) provided by the average Star Wars/Trek flick they claim to depict a world that did or, at the very least, could exist.

In turn, the demands of the genre must give rise to two other purposes. The first is to become a two-hour homage to an individual. Virtues are then extolled and the predicable battle against adversity is accompanied by the most rousing score James Horner is able to muster (see Cinderella Man, Chaplin, The Aviator). The second genre-specific motive is to transcend the contracted worship of the individual and, instead, create a universal story of heroism, love, courage that will be as relevant tomorrow as it was/is yesterday and today (see Raging Bull, Downfall, Good Night and Good Luck). Europa Europa yearns to belong in the latter category but fails. The only message it conveys is that the individual can have no control over the path of their life and, when facing the peril likely to be inflicted by anti-Semites, should submit themselves to the Goddess of Luck (denomination irrelevant). Perhaps the director is justified in highlighting the role of fortune or chance as an uncontrollable driver on the journey of human life but to make the point in such a laboured and laborious manner is unlikely to convince or entertain anyone.

Salomon Perel's recollection of survival during the Holocaust could be as remarkable as any Primo Levi memoir. Separated from his family, captured by the Russians and then the Nazis and all the time concealing his Jewish identity, his mission was one of personal survival. Rather than be content with this human story and how his life was evidence of the artificiality of the whole Aryan obsession in Nazi ideology this episodic film drifts from tragedy to farce with ill-judged fantasy sequence in which Hitler and Stalin skip around like disturbed Morris dancers and Salomon is seduced on a train by a Nazi Fraulein.

With the obvious faults of suspect acting and an array of characters who weave in and out of the story, Europa Europa betrays an emotive narrative and leaves the viewer perplexed rather than moved.