THE UNIMAGINABLE JOURNEY OF PETER ERTEL is an unflinching account of the life of a man who defied insurmountable odds in an unforgiving environment and who later found peace in Cleveland, Ohio. This film combines re-creation storytelling with Ertel’s own brave recounting of his harrowing years in the Nazi army, meeting his wife’s family (also members of the German resistance), surviving the Russian Winter, and then being accepted into a Jewish company in Ohio. Ertel grew up with a poet’s mind and an artist’s curiosity, and this film conveys these sensibilities—the very traits that saved his life on so many occasions—with a tale so bold, brave, and beautiful it will restore your faith that humanity can survive even the darkest of days.
