This is a very complex dream about a fictional, male self acting in a historical drama. It has three layers: my experiences as an actor, my experiences in character, and historical notes on the events underlying the movie.
My experiences in character will be rendered without markup.
[Historical notes will be in square brackets. Note that all of this history is in-dream only; it is certainly influenced by my knowledge of history during the time of the film, but it's not actual history.
(My experiences as an actor will appear in parentheses.)
(The movie is set in WWII-era Poland. The main character, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is an idealistic young Jewish freedom fighter. I play the grizzled leader of the cell. I'm embarrassed, because although I'm Jewish, I'm also clearly Czech and I worry that everyone will notice this. The director, a brilliant newcomer who gains great acclaim for this first feature film, assures me that no one in America will notice. He's right.)
[DiCaprio's character is based very closely on his real-life namesake, Stanislav "Stanni" Czerniak. They took some liberties with his story, including a love interest that is supported by no accounts at all, but mostly they stuck with the facts. My character is an amalgam of two men who led the cell, mostly the second, Abram Najdorf, who led it for over three years before his death. They took much greater liberties with my character, but he bears Abram's name.]
I am cynical and pragmatic, an obvious foil for Stanni. I resent his greater popularity with the cell, but I don't allow it to affect my actions, and I'm generally seen as the hidden hero of the piece.
[Abram is not known to have been jealous of Stanni, and since the love interest was manufactured, so was the sexual rivalry. Abram acknowledged Stanni's charisma, and used it to make the cell more effective. Stanni knew this, and cooperated with Abram's efforts. He was cannier than the movie gave him credit for being.]
(DiCaprio insisted that I call him "Leo", and was a warm guy and an excellent, hard-working actor. He liked to play chess with me to get into character, and never minded that I beat him. Yes, he was getting paid far more than I was, but I didn't resent this. We all knew that Leo was the main reason this project was getting funded at all, and he didn't steal scenes. After this movie, I went from being a character actor in the Czech Republic to having my pick of major film roles internationally. That, I owe to him, and the director.)
My involvement with Dora Epstein was a real mess. I clearly despised myself for wanting her, yet couldn't help myself. The bitterness of my anger when I found she was sleeping with Stanni almost drove me to suicide, and may have influenced my eventual decision to sacrifice myself.
[As I said, Abram wasn't thought to have been sexually involved with anyone during his time leading the cell. His wife had died early in the purges, but he seemed to have no desire for any other woman. In any case, he was a reserved, careful man, and would not have risked the cell on a love affair.]
(Why the fuck did they have to cast Sarah Silverman? What a pain in the ass! An entitled princess who clearly thought she was on par with Leo in star power and acting ability, and couldn't have been wronger in both cases. Well, like Leo, she was there to pull in bucks, especially with her topless scenes. I got tired of Sarah flopping her bare tits in my face between takes. I, too, was married, but my wife was alive and very capable of jealousy. It surprised me later when I told her about these antics and she just shrugged. "Who can resist you, Karol?" she teased me. "But I just know her cries in bed would be like nails on a chalkboard to you." She mimed an erect penis going limp. I laughed and hugged her. She was probably right.)
Tactically, I'm brilliant. I lead the SS into ambush after ambush, never using the same trick twice, and adapting to their new tactics as they try to cope with my old ones. Not everything I do works as planned, but I always have a contingency plan for failure.
[Abram was not quite as brilliant as he's made out to be in the movie, but he was certainty sharp, and on at least two occasions he correctly predicted the German response to his last attack as a basis for his next one. His real achievements were more basic: He kept the fire going, the food coming, the ammunition in good supply. Occasionally he'd even get explosives, cigarettes, and coffee, and was equally esteemed for all three. The resistance may have loved Stanni more, but they would have killed for Abram. And they did.]
(The director was an absolute genius at the visual depiction of ambush tactics. He could show my thinking just by having the camera adopt my optical perspective, and moving from thing to thing as I put together information. He earned his Oscar. So did Leo. So, perhaps, did I.)
I decide in the end that Stanni must be the man to lead the cell in the last days of the war. It is necessary for someone to distract the SS as they attack our hideout, and as Stanni rises to do it, I knock him out with one punch, order the cell to carry him with them as they escape, and light my last cigarette as I shoulder a captured MG-42 and prepare to engage the SS.
[Abram did die in that raid, but he is not thought to have been suicidal, and he didn't lay a hand on Stanni. It is likely that his decision was made in haste, because for once he was surprised by an ambush. Stanni never claimed afterward to have volunteered to stay behind, and stated repeatedly that everyone got out who could, at Abram's orders. Well, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.]
(That was an interesting scene. I got the best close-ups of the whole movie in those thirty seconds. My wry expression as I shake out the last cigarette, my sigh as I settle in behind the gun...the director did everything possible for me to get a Best Supporting Oscar, and I did. It took a lot of takes to satisfy him, but I never knew an actor to complain that they were spending too much time on his close-ups.)
Stanni led the cell until the liberation by the Russians, and left with Dora for America, where he prospered as the boss of a tire factory. Abram's grave is marked as a member of the War Order of Virtuti Militari.
[There was no Dora. Stanni married a woman he met in America while he was on a book tour for his autobiography. Abram's grave is really a cenotaph; his remains were never found. It was placed on the site of his final stand many years after the war. The non-Jewish Poles did not love him at the time of liberation, and only later did they decide he was worth remembering. He was named a member of the Army of Poland and awarded the Virtuti Militari in 1968, and that was added to his cenotaph at that time.]
(The period after shooting was peaceful at first, then exhausting as I toured to promote the movie, then exhilarating as we swept all of the awards. I gave talk show interviews beyond number, and gave all the credit to Leo and the director. This was taken as modesty by the audience, but it was the simple truth as I saw it. I did my job, but if they had not done theirs, the movie would never have succeeded as it did.)
