Adapted from the highly acclaimed 2005 novel of the Australian author, Markus Zusak of the same title, The Book Thief (Die Bücherdiebin), is a cathartically calibrated masterpiece in its classic attempt to portray the triumph of human spirit over the vivid faces of warfare and death. Amidst the Holocaust of WWIl, the hostility towards the inferior groups of their time and the silenced bulwarks of the learned ones is a story of a young girl named Liesel Meminger, an orphan sent to her foster family, who found solace in stealing books and sharing her words to the people during the war.

    Sardonically yet gently voiced by Death himself, the story is set in Germany during the onset of WWII, where novels and other forms of literature were banned by their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. Liesel played by the young Canadian actress, Sophie Niessel, began her thievery for erudition at the Burgermeister's library with her driven affinity to read more of the world. In her journey. she was accompanied by her foster parents, Hans and Rosa, her best friend Rudy and a Jew named Max who gave her the eyes to see what's written beyond the horizon of words and the power they hold. Her unassailability made Liesel the soul upon whom the Death questioned what it is like to be living.

    This movie proves that the goodness that withstands against the vast hostility is just as pure in the eyes of a child longing for literacy. The one that not even the dictatorial leader, the war strategy savants and the fully-armed militia could even disturb. Liesel's narrative triggers the question that if in the face of such constraints, could the end justify the means? Perhaps the answer is more than Rudy's one spit "yes" and two spit "no".