Simon and the Oaks

Get Showtimes + Tickets

  • Opened October 12, 2012 (NY; 10/19 LA)
  • 2 hr 2 min
  • An epic drama spanning the years 1939 to 1952, this is the gripping story of Simon (Bill Skarsgaard), who grows up in a loving working class family on the outskirts of Gothenburg but always feels out of place. Intellectually gifted, he stubbornly persists in acquiring an education normally reserved for young men of the professional classes, much to the chagrin of his parents who fear that he will become stuck up. He finally convinces his father to send him to an upper-class grammar school, where he meets Isak, the son of a wealthy Jewish bookseller who has fled Nazi persecution in Germany. Simon is dazzled by the books, art and music he encounters in the home of Isak's father Ruben (Jan Josef Leifers), which makes Simon long to know more about his own family background. Isak, on the other hand, draws comfort from learning to do something with his hands, helping Simon's dad (Stefan Godicke) make boats.
    Note: In Swedish and German with English subtitles. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Helen Sjoholm, Jan Josef Liefers, Jonatan S. Wächter, Karl Linnertorp
  • Director: Lisa Ohlin
  • Genres: Drama

What's the Buzz?

Go
Fans say Go
86 fans
Read fan reviews
Go
Critics say Go
62 out of 100
Read critic reviews

Fan Reviews

Go
Gripping Swedish family drama unfolds around the time of WWII

by pedsarq

This is a different kind of WW II movie that focuses on family life in the Swedish countryside around the time of the war. It's a movie about forbidden love and the love a parent shows to children...

Go
A Most Unusual Family Drama.

by Alon Patterson

Just when you think you've seen every possible formula for the "family angst" film genre, along comes something new. Thought provoking isn't the way one would usually describe a film of this subject...

Must Go!
"Simon and the Oaks"

by Let's Talk Off-Broadway

This is a terrific movie that I think hasn't been well understood. It's a rich family saga with REAL characters, iit takes up important ideas, it's beautifully acted and directed, and completely...

Read more fan reviews

Critic Reviews

90
The New York Times
|

With its exhilarating World War II narrative and performances that touch notes intimate and grand, Simon and the Oaks has an exquisite, and epic, ache. Read full review

88
Washington Post
| Michael O'Sullivan

Simon and the Oaks is not merely the story of two boys from opposite sides of the tracks. It's also a larger meditation on life's hardships and what endures: love, art and civilization. Read full review

88
Chicago Sun-Times
| Roger Ebert

It is unabashedly sentimental and epic, and rather bold in the way it takes place during and after the Holocaust but is not defined by it. Read full review

75
Slant Magazine
| Diego Costa

The film is at its best when it lingers on intimacy and the characters' incompetency to manage it. Read full review

Read more critic reviews

Offers

Photos

A scene from "Simon and the Oaks."