ISAAC STRUL, DESERTER
HE FOUGHT FOR A COUNTRY THAT HAD ALREADY ERASED HIM.
ONE MAN. TWO ARMIES. NO COUNTRY BETWEEN THEM.
On the Romanian front in 1917, Isaac Strul—a Jewish innkeeper, husband, father and reluctant soldier—fights bravely for a country that still refuses him citizenship.
His courage earns recognition on the battlefield, but it cannot protect him from the institution he serves. When a new lieutenant turns Isaac's identity into evidence of treason and creates a false report bearing his name, Isaac is trapped between surrender, an impossible return and an order designed to erase him as a deserter.
Isaac Strul, Deserter is an intimate moral thriller set inside the First World War. The film is not built around military spectacle. It follows how prejudice becomes suspicion, suspicion becomes paperwork and paperwork becomes a death sentence.
ROMANIA, 1916–1917
Romania entered the First World War in 1916. Approximately 23,000–25,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Romanian army. Hundreds were wounded or killed, and many received decorations for bravery. Yet most Romanian Jews remained excluded from citizenship.
Set in Fălticeni and along a fictional Eastern Carpathian sector, the film examines this contradiction: a country could demand a Jewish man’s loyalty, labor and life while continuing to deny that he fully belonged to it.
The historical setting is carefully researched. The characters’ uniforms, military equipment, weapons, railway environments, domestic spaces and institutional procedures are being developed from period evidence, while clearly distinguishing documented history from dramatic invention.
ISAAC STRUL, DESERTER
INSPIRED BY LIVIU REBREANU
The film is inspired by Liviu Rebreanu’s 1919 Romanian short story Ițic Ștrul, dezertor.
The original story’s moral core remains central: Isaac’s fear, his unexpected courage, the hostility of a new officer, the false accusation of desertion and the impossible burden placed upon his closest friend.
The feature-film adaptation expands Isaac’s family life, the historical exclusion of Romanian Jews and the bureaucratic machinery used to transform prejudice into an official record.
WHAT DOES LOYALTY MEAN WHEN THE COUNTRY DEMANDING YOUR SACRIFICE REFUSES TO ACCEPT YOU AS ONE OF ITS OWN?
BELONGING
A soldier can wear his country's uniform and still be treated as a foreigner.
PAPERWORK AS VIOLENCE
The most dangerous weapon in Isaac's story is not a rifle. It is a false official record.
FRIENDSHIP UNDER PRESSURE
Two old friends are forced onto the same path while an institution places them on opposite sides of an unforgivable order.
THE FIRST FEATURE FILM FROM TWO ACTORS
Isaac Strul, Deserter is the first feature-film project from Two Actors, an independent production company bringing Romanian stories with universal human impact to the screen.
The English-language film is currently in development. Further production information will be announced as the project advances.
FROM HUMAN WARMTH TO HARD-WHITE DAWN
The film begins with the warmth, movement and physical closeness of Isaac’s family and community. As the story advances, the images become colder, more rigid and more isolated.
Homes and shared work give way to military lines, doorways, ledgers, borders, tracks, trenches and snow. The visual world gradually strips away warmth until Isaac stands between two armies and belongs to neither.
SUPPORT THE FILM
Buying from the shop and joining the Two Actors membership directly supports the production of Isaac Strul, Deserter.