Nyon Film Festival 2009
Jared Bloch
Danny Chanoch, courtesy of Visions du Réel Film Festival
Moshe Zimmerman’s, Pizza in Auschwitz is a disturbingly beautiful treatise on what human beings make of pain and suffering, how human beings have the capacity to transform horror into something altogether comprehensible.
Born in Lithuania, Danny Chanoch is a holocaust survivor and Isreali citizen. He has convinced his two adult children to visit his childhood home and the sites of his multiple incarcerations in Poland. The trip for the elder Chanoch is a chance to reclaim a childhood which, as his daughter offers in one of many heated family discussions along the way, was stolen from him in the most cruel way.
Zimmerman, who wrote and directed the script, collaborates with Chanoch’s daughter, Miri, to provide an agile narrative. If the film is repetitive in its theme of the tension inherent in the children’s attempt to understand their father, it also provides moments of revelation, as when Miri finally concedes to her father, “Fortunately, I don’t think we can understand you.” Danny is a consummate optimist, as he points out, he didn’t have another option; “There were always people throwing themselves at the electcric fences, which I couldn’t understand, certain death was awaiting us anyway,” why the rush?
Survivors? Courtesy of Visions du Réel Film Festival
Danny’s optimism represents an incredible ode to the resilience of human beings, and a powerful expropriation of history in his claiming the former killing grounds as having been home to him. But he is hardly an unblemished soul which he illustrates by insisting on subjecting his children to the images of suffering and dying which he experienced as a boy. His daughter, who imagined stormtroopers knocking on her door as a child, retorts, the holocaust is “too much information” for 3, 4 and 5 year olds, and concludes “I guess there is no such thing as a Holocaust Survivor.”
GenevaLunch, 25 April 2009.
Filed under: Arts and Entertainment
Tags: Amani Abu-Ramadan, Architecture is a vocation and a passion for many. In this movie, documentary, established and upcoming architects undertake a personal analysis of their creative process., film festival, Janka Rahm, Mafiesh, Nyon, switzerland, Visions du reel 2009
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May 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I have just seen the film again. I’d seen it first during the Amsterdam excellent IDFA, while this time I saw it on tv; I just couldn’t stop watching this unstoppably positive person on a personal pilgrimage through this modern world, where he is not, and in most cases never will, be understood nor his behaviour and attitude comprehended. And I felt impatient watching the camp receptionist and the guards reacting in such unsuitable manner, even the camp ‘director’ included. Every time I think of those camp employers, I can’t stop thinking they have obviously NOT been prepared for their positions. They are not JUST a receptionist, JUST a guard, JUST some kind of ‘director’. That place requires tonnes of relevant education, deep commitment as weel as sensitivity and understanding of the place.
In a way, perhaps that also proves the point the documentary is probably trying to make: there IS not much understanding for things related to THAT time and THAT kind of suffering. Perhaps the world is actually simply lacking compassion? I hope I’m wrong. What I know for sure is I would LOVE to have this gentleman here with me every time I forget how precious and important it is to keep staying on the positive sight.