When I saw that “24 Days” was on the last day of the BIFF schedule I was determined to see this film. I remembered vividly the crime from 2006 that the film was based upon: the first time, supposedly, since the Holocaust that a French Jew was killed solely because of his religion. And sadly, not the last. Ironically, the day I saw the film (Sunday, May 31), I awoke with news from Haaretz (the Israeli newspaper) that in Paris “vandals have damaged a memorial plaque honoring a young French Jewish man tortured and killed in 2006.” And we all know the rest: Charlie Hebdo, increased religious tension, Islamic terrorists killing people in a Paris kosher market and the Jewish Museum attack in Brussels…..things are unsettling in Europe.
The film begins with the mother of the victim Ruth Halimi (an excellent Zabou Breitman – César-winning actress) addressing the camera, “How could this happen in France in 2006?” Her son, Ilan Halimi, a young cellphone salesman, has been abducted by a “gang of barbarians.” They had been scoping out for weeks young men who worked at stores closed on the Sabbath to find a Jewish man (they believed that they “had money” and would pay for kidnapped loved ones). The trick was enticing them by having a beautiful young girl as the lure. It worked with Ilan and he left his family for this date and was never seen alive again by them. The Halimi family was not wealthy and the huge sums that the kidnappers requested — which changed hourly — could not be met. The director, Alexander Arcady, chose to emphasize the different approaches of the police who believed it was just a kidnapping for money. Ilan’s mother, on the other hand, believed that anti-Semitism played a huge part in this and that the kidnappers, a group of African and North African immigrants, would eventually kill her son. She compared this at one point to the Daniel Pearl kidnapping. The father disagreed. He felt it was nothing like that — “this is not Pakistan” — and supported the police’s tactics. In the end the police finally realized that the 24 days of torture that Ilan Halimi had endured was indeed connected to anti-Semitism.
Ruth Halimi co-wrote the memoir that this movie was based on. “I would like Ilan’s death to sound an alarm!” The suspects were caught and tried and given stiff sentences but the family feared that they would be out one day and could “spit on his grave.” Accordingly, they had his body exhumed and buried in Israel. The name Ilan means tree in Hebrew and there have been trees planted in his memory in Jerusalem. There is also a French garden which he frequented in Paris named after him. I recommend this film strongly but be prepared to have your heart broken.
On to the other venue — the Beacon Cinema in Pittsfield — to see “Auf das Leben! To Life!” Although this has a Holocaust theme, it is an uplifting drama about the resilience of the human spirit. One of the screenwriters for this film is the Berkshire’s Stephen Glantz and he was there for the Q and A. His film “Wunderkinder” (for which he was also one of the screenwriters) won the Audience Award Prize at BIFF in 2012 for best narrative feature. The director, Uwe Janson, sets the tone from the beginning of the film, with the Yiddish song, “Bei Mir Bist du Shon” (To me, you are beautiful). This totally resonated with this writer – it was a song my father often played on the piano (and a song the Andrew Sisters made famous). There is an amazing soundtrack for this movie of Yiddish songs (Roumenye, Roumenye, Tumbalalaika and many others).
Ruth Weintraub (the wonderful German actress Hannelore Elsner — winner of many German acting awards) is an elderly cabaret singer. She lived through the Holocaust and has ended up in a very isolated existence. She has few connections when she becomes “expropriated” (again!) from her apartment and her store where she repairs musical instruments. Her life changes when she meets a young man, Jonas, (an equally wonderful Max Riemelt — a rising star in German film) who takes an interest in her sadness and displacement and literally saves her life. In doing so, he saves his own life — which is equally challenged with a life-threatening disease. He asks her questions about her earliest memories, forcing her to remember her painful past. He asked her about her earliest memory which was eating red raspberry cake when she was 5 years old. And what happened to her happy childhood when the Germans invaded in 1939? Her terse response, “No more cake!”
When Ruth becomes hospitalized after a suicide attempt, young Jonas moves into her new apartment and finds a treasure trove of old films. He becomes mesmerized by these films of a young Ruth (Sharon Brauner — a beautiful singer and actress) singing in a cabaret and captured on film by the love of her life, Victor, also played by Max Riemelt. He notices that he looks very much like Victor. When she returns from the psychiatric hospital, they watch the last reel of the film and he discovers the tragic reason why her life ended up so isolated. They both have huge secrets which draws them closer together.
In the Q and A Glantz discussed how the young Germans (like Jonas in the film) were not educated about what happened during the war. They had no idea of the breadth of what the Nazis did to the Jews and others in Germany. Perhaps it was just too painful for the country to confront at that time. Sad as this movie is the main characters learned to accept their fate and enjoy what remained of their lives.
Glantz also discussed the genesis of this film. Artur Brauner who founded the production company that produced this film, discovered footage of the “young Ruth” (the same Sharon Brauner in an earlier 1984 film) and wanted to incorporate that into this film — which switched back and forth from post WWII to 1971. This is what I love about film festivals — actually learning about the making of the film and backgrounds of the filmmakers. Artur Brauner, father of the film’s producer Alice Brauner, is 96 years old now. He has made more than 250 movies and 23 of those films are about the Holocaust. (As a side note, he has given these films to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem where they have opened an Artur Brauner Media Center).
The next film was just an enjoyable romp, “Gemma Bovery.” It was a perfect counterpoint to the heavy dramas of the day. “Gemma Bovery” is an interpretation of Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary” and is based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds. A former Parisian publisher and now the local baker, Martin Joubert (the fabulous Fabrice Luchini), had moved back 10 years ago to the same village in Normandy where the novel took place. He is obsessed with Flaubert’s masterpiece and finds it more than just a coincidence that his new neighbor is named Gemma Bovery (a gorgeous Gemma Arterton). He observes her, really stalks her, and finds his sexual joie de vivre returning with the advent of this newlywed couple. He is only an observer but he is convinced that she is following Emma’s path to destruction and he is desperately trying to stop this tragedy from occurring.
In the novel, “she was waiting for something to happen.” In this film, the director (Anne Fontaine, who also co-wrote the film) has Gemma filling her days with an affair with a local aristocratic young man. When Martin interjects his own admonitions to this farce, Gemma finds another lover. The closest Martin comes to any physical intimacy with Gemma is when he teaches her how to knead bread (which is only slightly reminiscent of the scene in “Ghost” with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore throwing clay on a wheel!). Gemma (Emma?) is the original desperate housewife.
The closing night film was “Live from New York!” It is a documentary about Saturday Night Live but with an emphasis on how the culture impacted SNL and how SNL impacted the culture. The two executive producers, Tom Broecker and J.L. Pomeroy, were there for a Q and A. They stated that this documentary is not a retrospective of the best sketches of the past 40 years on SNL but is more of an anthropological look at how SNL reflected the political and social landscapes. The director, Bao Nguyen, clearly showed how SNL reacted to important events, cultural changes, tragedies, 9/11: a living time capsule.
This was a personal journey for me since I have been a fan (even with some of their missteps) of SNL since I attended the show when Robert Klein was the guest host back in November 1975. (It was the fifth show!) I didn’t know what to expect. Neither did any of my friends. We thought it would be an NBC news/entertainment show. Perhaps a variety show? It was shocking how avant-garde it seemed at the time. There was nothing on television like that. The chances they took and still do…has made it the show to watch each week. But of course now we have so much competition — including Jon Stewart and John Oliver and other cutting-edge shows on Comedy Central.
The four days of the Berkshire International Film Festival were amazing and I have enjoyed sharing my impressions and comments with Berkshire Edge readers. Hope you all saw some great films at the BIFF!! I am sure I will be seeing you at the movies!!
