Obsessed with memory that will not loose its grip — will not fade — the adult Jakob (now played by the fabulous Stephen Dillane), a novelist and professor, pours out his grief into his writing, but is unable to move past it. Marrying the beautiful Alex (Rosamund Pike), Jakob is unable to allow himself to love her, to appreciate her or enjoy her. He journals his anger with her seeming frivolity for having the audacity to enjoy life, wear stylish clothing — her very happiness is trivial and out of place and out of context within his intractable grief, stuck in a time long past in most people’s memory. She neither understands his obsession with his memories of the Holocaust, nor his inability to move past his pain. Eventually, however, now divorced, Jakob returns to Greece, where he writes his story and meets Michaela — someone who can embrace his pain, and can help him heal by simply being there. At last Jakob can obtain closure and allow the ghosts of his past find their own peace.

Along the way, Jakob also helps Ben, his close friend and neighbor, himself the son of Holocaust survivors, gain an eventual understanding of his father's own behavior — his distance, even his cruelty.

Stephen Dillane (John Adams, Savage Grace), who seems to be popping up everywhere on screens large and small these days, is wonderful as the adult Jakob. He always seems to imbue his roles with a sense of simultaneous strength and fragility, and his Jakob Beer is haunted and hurting, living on a knife edge. Even when happy, you get the impression that Jakob is merely an observer of his own life. He is a distant spectator, anguished; when he meets Michaela, and finally begins to really begin to live again, Dillane peels away the layers and layers of Jacob's moribund heart and soul until we finally see him redeemed.

In fact, the entire cast is stellar. Robbie Kaye is excellent as the young Jakob — frightened, wary, guarded, truly a stranger in a strange land. His large, sad eyes evoke images of Oliver Twist, but with a stolen innocence. Rade Serbedzija’s gentle Athos is part Zorba and part Tevye, showing us a man suffering from his own grief and loss (his wife), which is mitigated by his love for the young Jakob.

This is not a film for everyone; it is quite bleak, and the sadness is occasionally oppressive. But director Jeremy Podeswa’s beautiful rendering and Dillane’s sensitive and graceful performance make it so very worthwhile (but bring a handkerchief or three).