First thing: this movie "based on the novel". BASED on the novel. So all those, that downrate it, because the movie does not follow beloved book, should start to learn separating one media from another.
There are no synthesized emotions in this. Everything feels real, or at least as real as the emotions in the diary of someone that is waiting for his days to end in concentration camp.
The main advantage of Puipa's masterpiece is this: There is no prejudice, no-goodie-white-hoodie and no evil-bad-wolf-hanibal-lector type characters. Everyone is show as a human. You will not feel sympathy for guards or collaborators, but you will understand things like "why do such people rise in times like this" or even start thinking about reasons that could turn good people into animals. Director won't tell you what to feel! It's such a rare feature, that it is hard to understand this concept at first.
There is some black humor in this movie too. It's dark, noir even, although it's so true, that it feels close even if you can't connect to WWII in any way.
Subtle details, real-life philosophy, humour, rich characters, absolutely stunning camera work makes this movie one of the best. It's not a fairy tale as Shindler's list is: you wont feel guilty if you are not crying in the end and everyone will understand why are you weeping if you do.
