The Sins of the Father
By Skip Sheffield
“Past Life” is proudly “Made in Jerusalem” by
writer-director Avi Nesher. Set in 1977, it concerns past events in the dark
year of 1939 in Poland.
Nana (Nelly Tagar) and Sephi Milch (Joy Rieger) are the
daughters of Holocaust survivor Dr. Barach Milch, now a successful gynecologist
in Jerusalem. Older sister Nana works for a racy magazine owned by her husband
Jeremy Kotler (Tom Avni), but she dreams of being a novelist.
Sephi has even bolder dreams. Though she is still a student
at a musical academy and is a featured soloist in its choir, she dreams of
being a composer.
The story begins with a concert in which Sephi is featured.
At the reception afterward she spots an attractive German boy. Suddenly she is
accosted by an older woman who grabs her and screams “You are the daughter of a
murderer!”
The German boy subdues the woman. Sephi is shaken. The boy
is Thomas Zielinski (Rafael Stachowiak), already a successful composer. The
older woman is his mother (Katarzyna Gniewkonska). Thomas apologizes profusely,
and when he returns as a visiting professor, he takes a personal interest in
Sephi.
When Nana learns of the incident she becomes determined to
get to the bottom of the mystery of whether their father was a blameless
survivor or a villain.
It is a complex mystery, entailing trips to Poland and
Germany, where Barach Milch had vowed never to return. Unlike many
Holocaust-related films, this one has a silver lining, but you have to wait for
it. It is worth the wait. Oh, and it is based on a true story.
No comments:
Post a Comment