The Boy in the Woods

The Boy in the Woods is a Canadian drama film, directed by Rebecca Snow and released in 2023. Based on the memoir of the same name by Maxwell Smart, the film dramatizes Smart's childhood experience of having to fend for himself in the forests of Poland during World War II.
The film screened in the Industry Selects program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and had its public premiere in a gala screening at the 2023 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival. It went into commercial release in June 2024.

Cast

Jett Klyne as Maxwell Smart
Richard Armitage as Jasko
Christopher Heyerdahl as Bagan
Ari Millen as Aleksey
Masa Lizdek as Kasia
Berkley Silverman as Rosa
Joshua Peace as Police Sargeant
Matt Lishman as Young Partisan
Katherine Fogler as Faigie
Tara Nicodemo as Aunt Erna
Shuna Snow as Regina
Richard Patrick Tolton II as Hunter
Morgan Bedard as Danylo

Production

The film entered production in fall 2022 in North Bay, Ontario. Snow had previously directed the television documentary special Cheating Hitler: Surviving the Holocaust, in which Smart was a participant.

Reception

Rating it 3/5 stars on The Guardian, Leslie Felperin highlighted in his review that "true story of Jewish boy in flight from the Nazis and hiding in the forest is told here with a fair amount of sentiment."