Another film which does not leave my head and which I wished had got more attention than it finally received. At first, the film has the structure of a Road Movie, a travel narrative. A class of Israeli students make a trip to monuments of concentration camps in Poland. It is a common tradition for young Israelis to visit the places of the worst genocide in the history of mankind as well like traces of the most painful chapter of their own national history. The film often changes between the fact of the very special tradition among the Israeli youth and their normal behavior as young people who could be from any part of the world. Cliques are formed, dalliances are implied. They talk about how to spend the free time in this or that city, what pubs or places of interest should be visited. But the films raises as well questions like what or how should they feel about their encounters with monuments of history which affected their own existence. what to feel about this specific chapter of history they already learned in school. One of the students is accompanied by his grandfather, a Rabbi who is a Holocaust-survivor. Before checking into hotels, a security advisor gives a briefing how to avoid terror-attacks and how to keep a “low profile”.
The film´s bravery is evident in the confrontation of history and the present from the point of view of young people but also with its artistic approach to evoke own images about a historic tragedy where a lot of facts are already known and a lot of images already existing. Asaf Saban approaches own cinematic images and thoughts.
The relationship between past and present happens in different ways. One of the student´s grandfather, the Rabbi Frisch gives lectures for the class about his own experiences with the Holocaust. He represents living history in contrast to the frozen monuments and museums. Sometimes he stumbles in the middle of his narrations, unable to find words for his experiences, unable to continue and overwhelmed by the painful memories. A walk through a landscape, a forest grown over mass graves. A casually walk can be invaded without warning by the terror of history. Once the student are gathered in a museum in one of the wagons which deported the prisoners to concentration camps. For a short moments the students feel the narrowness in a crowded wagon which raises anxiety attacks for some of them. There is a numberless collection of clothes and shoes which were taken from the prisoners before their last way into death. These are despite its shortness unforgettable moments. The terror of the past dominates for moments the present.
A more artificial but nevertheless brilliant idea is the use of music. It is mostly a swelling sounds which ebbs away and the other way around. Sometimes we are aware of it, sometimes not. These outbreaks of the terror of the past from this very chapter of history seem like sudden eruptions from the depth of history to the surface of the rather restraint narration.
Another movement in this film is always the experience of a journey including the encounters with history and the reflections about them. The film must have been carefully scripted and researched but seems nevertheless rarely forced. Asaf Saban´s confidence in cinema and its ability to present truth is captivating. It seems that in his film, history can neither be denied nor can it be forgotten, it breaks its ways even to the most banal things and events to the surface like an uncontrollable force.
Rüdiger Tomczak
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