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Review

An epic story of three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family, Sunshine is a sweeping historical drama that explores the loss of identity set against the backdrop of the two world wars, the carnage of Communism and the 20th-century's rising tide of anti-Semitism. In the late 1800s, the Sonnenschein family, headed by the gentlemanly Emmanuel, makes its fortune from the family recipe for medicinal tonic. During the course of the next half a century, the Sonnenscheins endure the hardships of a nation and more as each generation struggles to free itself from emotional and physical restraints both self-inflicted and imposed. Fiennes is excellent portraying three generations of Sonnenscheins: Emmanuel's son Ignatz, a phlegmatic judge who abandons his father's name; his son Adam, a roguish swordsman who forsakes his religion; and Adam's son Ivan, an idealist Communist whose family lineage rests with him. And then there are the women, including the beautiful Valerie, who marries Ignatz and is witness to the family legacy, and played by Ehle as a young woman and her real-life mother Harris in later years. Both actresses are extraordinary. Sunshine is masterful story telling, a richly textured, intimate saga that delineates a family and a world in turmoil with passion and beauty.