When Hollywood has exhausted its supply of Islamic-ninja-alien-crime lords to do battle with, it simply dusts down zee default villains for another round of good vs evil. So it's Nazis again (but these are not-so-bad Nazis, rather than the genocidal b***ard ones).
Based on Markus Zusak's bestselling novel of the same name, (Fox Movies Premium, Saturday at 9pm) is a heartbreaking tale of love and survival in Nazi Germany around the outbreak of the second world war, directed by period-drama maestro Brian Percival (Downton Abbey).
The story revolves around Liesel (pictured; Sophie Nelisse), an illiterate girl who Bavarian couple Hans and Rosa Hubermann (Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech; and Emily Watson, Gosford Park) decide to foster so they can receive financial benefits from the government.
When Liesel is teased by her new classmates for her illiteracy, kind-hearted Hans decides to teach her to read and write, just when the Nazis have begun banning "unGerman" books.
The family gives refuge to the mysterious and brooding Max, a Jewish fugitive with ties to Hans' past, who hides out in their cellar and develops a deep friendship with Liesel.
While in search of reading material, Liesel is spotted nabbing a smouldering tome from the embers of a Nazi book bonfire by the kindly wife of a German general. She invites Liesel to use her husband's library. But one day the general returns home to find Liesel reading his books and she is thrown out. Liesel then begins to surreptitiously help herself to the general's literary collection and, as the war begins, life for the Hubermanns and their guests becomes ever more perilous.