From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Everything Is Illuminated
Everything Is Illuminated movie poster
Directed by	Liev Schreiber
Produced by	Marc Turtletaub Peter Saraf Matthew Stillman
Written by	Screenplay by Liev Schreiber Based on the Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
Starring	Elijah Wood Eugene Hütz Boris Leskin Laryssa Lauret
Music by	Paul Cantelon
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Editing by	Andrew Marcus Craig McKay
Distributed by	Warner Independent Pictures
Release date(s)	September 16, 2005
Running time	106 mins.
Country	USA
Language	English, Russian, Ukrainian
Budget	7,000,000 $
IMDb profile

Everything Is Illuminated is a 2005 adventure/comedy/drama, written and directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz. It was adapted from the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

• Tagline: Leave normal behind.

A young American Jewish man, Jonathan, goes on a quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather in a small Ukrainian town called Trachimbrod that was wiped off the map when the Nazis liquidated Eastern European shtetls. His guides are a cranky anti-semitic grandfather and his over-enthusiastic grandson, whose fractured command of English, passion for American pop culture, and constant chatter threaten to make the worst of every situation. But what starts out as the tour from hell turns into a meaningful journey, with an unexpected series of revelations that will change all of their lives.

• Jonathan Safran Foer: Elijah Wood
• Alex: Eugene Hütz
• Grandfather: Boris Leskin
• Lista: Laryssa Lauret
• Alex's Mother: Zuzana Hodkova
• Goatherder: Elias Bauer
• Band Member: Lemeshev
• Drummer: Pamela Racine
• Leaf Blower: Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything Is Illuminated features a unique score , which includes music by the Russian ska punk band Leningrad and by Gogol Bordello, whose lead singer plays Alex. DeVotchKa's single "How It Ends" is featured in the trailer, but is not on the official soundtrack.

• In the film, Alex smacks Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., and he is then assaulted by his grandfather. This does not take place in the book.
• The book involves a separate story arc. The film focuses on the present time and vastly alters the other story that explains events in the present.
• In the book, Alex's grandfather was forced by the Nazis to choose between his own life and his best friend's, and due to his pain and fear, he covers it by taking on the persona of being anti-semitic. In the movie, he is portrayed as having hidden the fact that he himself was Jewish.
• In the book, Alex's grandfather commits suicide after the journey had ended and events had occurred. In the film, this happens earlier, at the denouement of the "very rigid search".
• Near the end of the book, Alex's father leaves the family. In the film, he plays a much smaller role, and is seen at the interment of his father.
• The roads pictured in the movie look brand new. However, they are not Ukranian roads; the movie was shot in the Czech Republic.

• Liev Schreiber won Laterna Magica Prize at 2005 Venice Film Festival

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Everything Is Illuminated (film)

• Official site
• Rotten Tomatoes includes an excellent article.
• Everything Is Illuminated at the Internet Movie Database
• Roger Ebert's review of Everything Is Illuminated