Movies Are Us: "Live and Become"

Monday night, a bunch of second and third year Hebrew students gathered in a dank room of a campus building to watch our scheduled Hebrew-language film, T'chiyeh v't'hiyeh (תחיה ותהיה). My transliteration is probably horrible, but it's the best I can do for now. Here is the film's synopsis, according to Wikipedia:

Live and Become or Va, Vis et Deviens is a 2005 film about an Ethiopian Christian boy who disguises himself as an Ethiopian Jew in order to escape famine and emigrates to Israel.

The film, which has won a ton of awards, is incredibly emotionally. The young boy in the film is sent off by his Christian mother from a refugee camp with a Jewish woman. The boy gets to Israel and is told what his new name will be and who is parents and grandparents were. He's angry, torn, and inevitably is adopted by a secular Jewish-Israeli family. Throughout his life, he wants/needs to tell others that he isn't truly Jewish, but it never comes up and/or he can't tell anyone. He says, "I'm not Jewish, but I feel Jewish." I won't ruin the movie for you, but there's a wedding, a reunion, and more. The movie is completely emotional with ups and downs, a child torn between his Christian past and mother still in Sudan and his Jewish life with his new Jewish family in Israel.

The movie is fashioned around the struggle of the Ethiopian immigrant to Israel and the struggle of being an oleh from a completely different world with a completely different way of life. The story is compounded by the fact that the child isn't Jewish by birth and only he knows this truth. He becomes good friends with a rabbi that also emigrated from Ethiopia, and this rabbi tries to guide the child on the right path. His family life is tenuous, as his family is French-Israeli and his father has a specific outlook on life. But his grandfather and his mother always are there to lend an ear and provide a positive impression on things to come.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the movie -- especially coming from a convert like myself -- is that the boy, despite "feeling Jewish," never goes through the process of a brit milah, even knowing of his future simchas and knowing that he is living a fully Jewish/Israeli life. It raises a lot of really important questions as a Jew or as a potential convert to Judaism.

Is it enough to simply feel Jewish?

This goes into a much greater debate that I don't necessarily want to have here: What should conversion to Judaism comprise? Should it be enough to feel Jewish and state your dedication to Judaism? Some religions require very little, such as a simple statement about the Gd and major prophet of that religion. No learning before the fact, nothing beyond a declaration. Words, after all, are powerful. Was it enough for the boy in the movie to FEEL Jewish? Or did he really need to commit to the brit milah ceremony?

That also makes me wonder whether the movie's point was that it is enough to feel Jewish. I can't decide. Has anyone else seen this movie? What was your perception? Was the boy wrong to go through life not committing to the covenant through the means of the community standard?

Anyway, what an interesting movie. What a thought-provoking movie, at that. I highly recommend it, and I would love to hear what you all think about it, too. As well as the questions posed here.

Truly Unique, Defiance

Last Saturday, after some tenuous debate, Tuvia and I went to see "Defiance ," the much lauded true story staring Daniel Craig, Liev Schrieber and others. For those who don't know, the film is about a group of brothers -- of which I originally thought there were three, but as it turned out there were four -- who build a band of Jewish survivors/partisans in the forests of Eastern Europe (then-Poland, now western Belarus). The brothers -- Tuvia, Zus, Asael, and Aron -- help shelter hundreds in the forests starting in 1941, and at the war's end, there were 1,200 people who had been sheltered in the Naliboki forest.

The movie itself was surprising, compared to many Holocaust period films. I was shocked, and almost dismayed to see some of the violence committed by Jews on non-Jews and Nazis. Now, I want to explain myself so that people don't think I'm being sympathetic toward Nazis. I don't want to give anything away in the film, but there is a lot of vengeance killing, and although we later see that there is reversal where the brothers seek to save Jews, not kill non-Jews, it was incredibly difficult to watch. Many Holocaust movies portray Jews as timid, wanting to fight back but unwilling. This movie is quite the contrary, and this seeming anomaly is portrayed in conversations between Zus and a Russian military officer with whom he comes to work. It was an interesting aspect of the film that made it, well, all the more real.

What's more -- beyond the amazing musical score and cinematics and acting -- the movie became even more real when Tuvia and I learned that he knows members of the Bielski family. In fact, the grandchildren of one of the brothers even went to Tuvia's school! It is truly a small world when it comes to the Jewish community, but the reality of the film was magnified at that point.

This movie is perhaps most unique because we don't see Jews in a ghetto or in a camp -- we see them building homes in the forest, starving in the winter, fighting for their lives, traveling helplessly through bogs and marshes, creating relationships while knowing full well that their former families have died, and more. It's a unique perspective on Jews during the Shoah, and one that I have yet to see portrayed outside of this film.

I applaud the filmmakers, the actors (especially Liev Schrieber, who seems to make his way into every Shoah film on the planet), and those who take the time to view the movie. It's a beautiful story, just beautiful, and inspiring in ways that nothing else can compare.

A movie worth your time.

This is a movie worth sharing, and it's called Refusenik. The documentary film details the struggle to free Soviet Jews. From the film's website,

REFUSENIK is the first retrospective documentary to chronicle the thirty-year movement to free Soviet Jews. It shows how a small grassroots effort bold enough to take on a Cold War superpower blossomed into an international human rights campaign that engaged the disempowered and world leaders alike. Told through the eyes of activists on both sides of the Iron Curtain - many of whom survived punishment in Soviet Gulag labor camps - the film is a tapestry of first-person accounts of heroism, sacrifice, and ultimately, liberation.

You can check out the trailer by clicking here. It looks like it doesn't have an opening scheduled for Chicago, unfortunately, but check out the openings in your area!

Why can't we all just get along?

Seriously. Can we quit trying to out frum each other? I'm sure someone's trying to prove something to the Israeli community by FREAKING OUT about the Hasid who was starring with Natalie Portman in a new movie.

This is just ridiculous. More here.

The Shoah and Chavi.

After finally getting Netflix to actually stream on my computer, I got busy watching movies. One of the first I picked up was "Hiding and Seeking," a film about a father who takes his two grown Orthodox sons to Poland to meet the family that hid their grandfather during the Shoah. The father is worried that his sons focus too much on ignoring and pushing away the "outside world." The movie opens with a powerful playback of dialog from what I assume must be a famous Orthodox rabbi spouting off the necessity to cast out the goyim (which, in truth, means "nation" in Hebrew, but has come to mean Gentiles). The rabbi on the tape has some unpleasant things to say about goyim, and thus begins the adventure of the father seeking out what his sons think about the outside world.

It wasn't exactly what I expected it to be, but it was truly breathtaking in its honesty. There is no special production or anything involved, but rather the clips are choppy and the footage is shaky. It is, in truth, a true journey into the acts of righteous Gentiles and the survivors and their families. The movie has moments that caught me completely off guard, leaving me wondering whether righteous Gentiles -- in some cases -- are truly that, or whether motives go beyond simply "doing the right thing." The movie ends with a sobering quote from one of the Orthodox sons, that sadly in some ways rings true.

The thing about this movie is that it shows how fleeting these memories are. Shoah survivors are becoming fewer and fewer in number. I remember when my grandfather died last year I thought to myself, so few Pearl Harbor survivors remain ... what will become of their memory? The movie goes to great lengths to provide the idea that the efforts are meant to keep a memory alive in the generations of survivors. Grandchildren and children are meant to hold the memory, tell the stories, and help pass along the message of such horrid times.

In my efforts to connect with the Shoah, though, this movie is yet another reminder that the direct link is not there. I have no family, no connection, no history with the Shoah. It brings me to my knees and makes me weep, without fail, every time. Its stories and images are emblazoned on my mind in ways that I cannot describe, in ways that even my own personal tragedies cannot comprehend. The collective memory is something that I am now a part of preserving, and movies like this make me desperate to understand and explore the stories that are available. I spent a great deal of time avoiding the Shoah, simply because it is a subject that is so large, so vast, that one could spend an entire lifetime grasping for, and yet never truly understand. The social, emotional, cultural and spiritual implications of such a catastrophe are so despair-inducing, it's difficult to spend more than moments focusing on at once. Where was G-d? Where were the miracles? Where was G-d?

I find it deeply saddening that something so close feels so far away. As each survivor passes away, I worry about that memory. I worry about the cries of "Never Again," even as genocides around the world persist. I find it so hard to connect, to truly connect, that I sometimes wonder if my tears are truly enough. I also hope -- desperately, with all of my heart and mind -- that in my lifetime and in my children's lifetime and in my children's children's lifetime and so on, that such horror will never again occur. There need not be martyrs.

But in a way, I know the feeling of never having known someone. The mystery that surrounds their loss and the despair that is felt when you have no memories, not even memories from your family. With this, I will mark the yahrzeit of my grandmother -- my father's mother. She died 46 years ago of cancer (on Jan. 20 or 15 of Sh'vat, which also happens to be Tu B'Sh'vat, the minor holiday for the new year for trees). My father was only nine years old, and I, like he, would never know his mother. What kind of woman she was or what kind of woman she would be. Whether she would have more children, whether she would cradle her grandbabies in her arms while singing lullabies. Whether she had stories about her parents and their parents. Stories of a lineage long and true. Unique in all of it's manners and details.

I understand what it means to have an empty, curious spot in my lineage. A puff of smoke where a name and photos should be. But I also know that this is not the same, and each day I search the six million for a way to connect. On any other day I have a million and one reasons and ways in which I connect to Judaism and the Jewish people and the collective memory. But the Shoah is one way in which I will spend moments, hours, weeks, months and perhaps the whole of my lifetime, trying to connect to. There are six million stories, and I am but one person, but I have known emptiness and the ghost of a branch on my family's wide-reaching expanse of a tree.

The Jewish Video Roundup.

Oy. Seriously? A movie starring Adam Sandler as a former Israeli soldier who wants to be a hairdresser? In truth, I wish he would stick to serious movies, because he's really much better at those. I mean, I love Happy Gilmore and stuff, but lately, I don't want hilariously stupid Sandler, I want thought-provoking and genuine Sandler. Anyhow, here's the trailer for his new movie ...



PS: Zohan is a Slavic name meaning "gift from G-d." Interesting.

On a different note, here's a deliciously entertaining Yiddish version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I just like how the word "schnoz" sticks out! And if you think about it, the fact that this song was written by a Jew is sort of noteworthy, considering it's about a reindeer who is picked on because his outlandish nose ...



And finally, here's what ever bar mitzvah dreams of for is shindig, a girl in a mid-riff, mini-skirt dancing around singing a remix of the classic, "Hava Nagila."

West Bank Story!? OMG!

I have stumbled upon perhaps the greatest short film ever made. Yes, the greatest short film ever made. Not only did "West Bank Story" win an Academy Award ... but come on ... it's a musical about competing falafel stands in the West Bank. How could it NOT be the greatest short film ever? Cheers to Ari Sandel for winning Best Live Action Short Film!

Here's the trailer:


Here's the first 4 minutes of musical bliss!:

Movie!: A new series, I guess.

So the way I roll is that I go through Netflix and rent all the Jewish movies I can. Israeli, Holocaust, Diaspora, history, religion, etc. Why? Because it's what I do. I've mentioned two movies that I found astounding already, and I have another to add. The movie? "The Harmonists." The first photo here is of the movie fellows. The photo down below is of the actual group, taken sometime in the 1930s.

It's based on the true story of the German sextet the Comedian Harmonists. Half the group is Jewish and half is Gentile. This isn't even something they think about, let alone care about when they form to create a group based on the popular U.S. group the Revellers. They become a sort of subtle-humor-filled a capella group (although one of the sextet is actually the pianist, who accompanies them). The movie is based around the success and subsequent demise of the group, particularly at the hands of the Nazis, who take over and shut down their career because of the Jewish members.

The great thing about the group is that despite it all, there was never any intra-group rivalry involved with religion, race or ethnic affiliation. It's definitely a feel-good story.

If anything, the flick is worth watching because the music that appears in it is all remastered from original recordings of the group. It's a little awkward to watch, of course, because despite the best remastering work, it still has that old-tyme sound to it. But it adds a lot of flavor to the flick. And at about two hours, it flies by, truly.

PS: If you hate subtitles, my apologies. Most of the flicks I watch have subtitles, because I find some of the best films aren't hammered out in the U.S.

Another Movie!

At 3 hours and 1 minute long, "Sunshine" starring Ralph Fiennes was sort of hard to put into the DVD player. The last 3-hour-long flick I watched was probably Titanic, and that was more years ago than I care to count. I had to set aside plenty of time to watch the flick, because those who know me know I'm the type of person who refuses to stand down when a movie is started. I've never walked out of a theater and have only shut one movie off mid-flick (it was "Mafia"). I'm a get-through-the-movie kind of person. It's just how I am. But this movie, this movie turned out brilliant. Three hours felt like moments.

The film is based on three generations of a Hungarian family, and all of the patriarchs are played by Fiennes. We travel from the 1800s into World War II and into the 1950s. The story begins with the elder (not played by Fiennes) of the family leaving his shtetl-type village to take the family liquor recipe to the city. He becomes incredibly wealthy with his 'Sunshine' booze and sets the family on a well-seated path. Then, as imdb.com says, the elder's son "becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage."

The fascinating thing about the movie is the ebb and flow of this family. The loss and the struggle of identity. The original family name is Sonnenschein (which means sunshine), but in order to further his career, the lawyer son changes his name to Sors, a Hungarian last name. Thus he and his son go through much of their lives without others acknowledging their Jewish heritage. It is only when the fencer wants to join a fencing club that he must acknowledge his heritage and convert to Christianity. But even still, the Nazis play no favors to Jewish converts and his son is persecuted even still.

The use of Fiennes as each patriarchal figure is a fascinating trick, because it shows a continuity of struggle within the family identity. And let it be known, that this film isn't full of Orthodoxy or anything of the sort, but still the Jewishness is ever present. It traverses familial struggles between the old and new, tradition versus change. And the end of the film brings us full circle, but I won't give that away. I think it's better that the viewer take it on.

Another flick I recommend, darn't!

Movie!

I really do need a daytime job. Instead, I watch Passions and Dr. Phil and Oprah. These shows sort of eat away at your soul and make you unnecessarily obsessed with things. Ugh. Well, Dr. Phil and Oprah anyhow. Passions, on the other hand, is absolutely amusing. I love it. But really, I need a day job.

I watched a great Holocaust movie last night -- if there is such a thing. It's a story of righteous gentiles who harbor the son of their former boss amid the Nazi regime. The flick, "Divided We Fall," is a Czech film and is absolutely brilliant. Acting, storyline, presentation, sensitivity, etc. It's just an all-around stellar film. It's two hours long, but was honestly the quickest two-hour movie I've ever viewed. It's intelligent and passionate and centers on David Wiener (the escaped Jew) and Josef and his wife, Marie, who harbor him in a cupboard, while all the while a Nazi party member visits daily. Toward the end, to save themselves from imminent danger, they do something that would take a completely and absolutely strong group of people. I highly recommend it, anyhow.