The Optimist

"The Optimist" is a Holocaust film that can make you sympathetic to the struggle of others and look inwards to any buried traumas of one's own. There are films about the Holocaust that assault you with horror, and there are films that approach from a quieter angle, asking you to sit, listen, and be changed. Finn Taylor’s "The Optimist" belongs firmly in the latter camp. It is a work of deep reverence—for history, for truth, and above all for one man, Herbert Heller, yet it ultimately blossoms into something tender, hopeful, and unexpectedly life-affirming. At the heart of the film is Herbert Heller, a Czech Jewish boy from Prague who survives Terezín and Auschwitz, and the older man he becomes decades later in Northern California. It’s clear that Taylor never wanted Herbert to be framed simply as a victim, or even as a conventional “inspirational” figure. Taylor himself has described Herbert Heller as “a different kind of hero, the kind of hero we really need right now, that leads with compassion and depth and understanding and grace." That phrase quietly defines the film. Rather than focusing on spectacle or on the machinery of genocide, Taylor orients the entire story around Herbert’s moral and emotional presence—how he listens, how he comforts, how he gently reaches out to a contemporary teenager, Abby, who feels her own world collapsing. The film’s title is not a sentimental cover. It is a statement of character. Herbert Heller has seen “the end of the world” and chooses, again and again, not to give up on humanity. Taylor’s casting of Herbert in both timelines is crucial to that effect. As the older Herbert, Stephen Lang is a revelation. Better known on screen for his hard-edged, macho roles in “Avatar” or “Don’t Breathe”, Lang is here cast deliberately against type. While there are many actors who would have seemed a more obvious fit—men who already read as “Holocaust survivor” at a glance, Lang was an inspired choice as he delivers a completely chameleon-like portrayal of Heller – an individual, a real person. Lang disappears into Herbert with such humility that, according to Taylor, even the Heller family was stunned by the portrayal. The performance is gentle, often fragile, yet suffused with a core of quiet strength. A small anecdote from set says it all as in my exclusive interview with him, Taylor recalled instinctively putting a steadying hand under Lang’s arm as they walked down a muddy path—only to feel the actor’s massive bicep under his costume. The strongman is still there, but in "The Optimist" that strength is redirected inward, toward compassion. As young Herbert, Luke David Blumm is the kind of discovery most directors can only hope for. The role is technically punishing—often performed inches from a wide-angle lens—and emotionally demanding, carrying the boy through bewilderment, terror, stubborn resolve, and flickers of joy. Blumm never strains; he simply inhabits Herbert, making the child’s experience feel acutely present rather than historical abstraction. Blumm carries the weight of young Herbert, and the film, on his shoulders. If we don’t understand and believe the once joyous child within and the hardships and torturous conditions he then survived, we will not believe Lang’s performance as the older Herbert and his optimistic outlook on life. Luke David Blumm captivates. Together, Lang and Blumm present one seamless life: a boy marked and nearly destroyed by history, and an old man who somehow remains warm, funny, and open-hearted. What makes the film so quietly powerful is not just who it is about, but how it is told. Taylor’s filmmaking is careful, restrained, and rigorously thought through, always in service of point of view and emotional truth. Visually, Taylor divides the film between two worlds. In the United States, where the elderly Herbert lives among the Northern California redwoods, US cinematographer Antonio Riestra leans into a natural, sometimes handheld intimacy. In Europe, by contrast, cinematographer Alexandra “Sasha” Cirul works in and around Prague, Terezín, and a purpose-built Auschwitz. The Czech studio, Stillking Films, which hosts blockbuster franchises like “Mission: Impossible” and “Spider-Man”, “bent over backwards” for this because it was about one of their own, Herbert Heller from Prague. The studio built Auschwitz. The team was allowed to shoot in the actual Terezin. Finn Taylor builds a remarkably coherent visual grammar for THE OPTIMIST by rooting every choice in point of view, geography, and emotion. By splitting the shoot between America and Europe, using Antonio Riestra for the redwood ringed present and Alexandra “Sasha” Cirul for Prague, Terezín, and Auschwitz, Herbert’s Californian refuge stands in stark visual contrast to the death camps. In the U.S. material, Taylor leans into the looser, sometimes handheld intimacy—most notably in the early interview scenes, where the slight instability of the camera mirrors Herbert’s