A Great Israeli Composer: Andre Hajdu

The Hungarian Cube: A Journey with Andre Hajdu (directed by Gilad Inbar) is a new bio-documentary, providing an intimate look at one of Israel's foremost composers, a winner of the Israel Prize for Music (1997).  Young Israeli musicians were brought up on his music -- I recall my daughter playing some of his pieces during her years as a clarinetist in the Jerusalem Youth Orchestra.  

 

At the beginning of a concert of his music, Hajdu tells an audience: "I hope you will not only enjoy but also suffer a little because these things aren't simple."  His music -- quite unique and even eclectic in style, not standard in any sense -- accompanies the entire film, and is described as having theatrical flavor.  

Hajdu, now 80-years-old, talks about the difficulties of his youth, growing up in Budapest during the terrible period of the Nazi occupation and the difficult years under the Russians. He travels, with his wife, Ruth, to Budapest, swims in Lake Balaton, teaches a master class in improvisation, visits childhood friends with whom he discusses issues of identity and the central source of inspiration that the Holocaust has played in his life.  We learn of his work to collect and preserve gypsy music  and we visit Ruth 's Catholic family in rural France. 

Hajdu is a charming and eccentric character in his personal life -- with his wife and adult sons, and in his relations with friends and colleagues.  He has become a religious Jew and has written melodies so that Mishnah texts can be sung aloud.  We meet his six diverse sons:  one lives in Paris; one is a haredi educator; one is a businessman who had serious questions about circumcising his son;  one is a Gush Khatif  evacuee; one shares with his father his "ideology" that he prefers to live with his girlfriend before marriage; and one is a Jerusalem tour guide, teaching his aging father to ride a Segway! 

The Hungarian Cube: A Journey with Andre Hajdu (documentary, 72 minutes, 2013) is available from Ruth Diskin Films.

Additional bio-documentaries about personalities in the field of Israeli music, recently reviewed on this blog:

• ·         Rita Jahan Foruz directed by Ayal Goldberg
• ·         Wind, Darkness, Water (about Nomi Shemer) directed by Yahaly Gat

Israeli Teens travel in the Footsteps of Holocaust Survivors

The Escape (Ha'Brichah), directed by Meni Elias, is a documentary film which tells the story of the post-war Brichah movement during which Jews, survivors of the Holocaust, were clandestinely moved across Europe to boats that would take them to Palestine.  It also tells the story of 8 Israeli teenagers who travel from Israel to Europe to follow in the path of this movement.  

 

They are a diverse group of teens -- a girl from Colombia, an Arab girl from Acco, a religious boy from Tekoah, a D.J. from Sderot,  one fellow who wants to be a dancer, and the great grandson of the legendary Ada Sereni who helped to organize small boats for the refugees all over Italy.

First they travel to Kielce in Poland to learn about the post-war pogrom in which 42 Jews were murdered in one day.  Then they travel to Austria where they visit a DP camp, then a forced labor camp, and also some significant stops along the journey of the rescue mission.  They meet locals and talk to them about their memories and ask them how can you live on this memory-filled land? They meet with many people who were brought to Israel by this rescue movement, or by those who assisted in it, helping to organize boats and trucks.  In a small town in Austria, one man relates the story of how his job was to obtain six trucks, but he only had one.  So he went to the local authorities and requested five trucks.  They asked him, why would we help you?  He told them, if you don't help us, the 400 Jews who are temporarily residing here, will be forced to stay.  He was immediately provided with the use of the trucks!

The film uses archival footage and old photographs to tell the historical story -- much of the footage is from Meyer Levin's landmark film, The Illegals (shot as a semi-documentary/semi-drama in 1947).  But, the focus of this film is actually on the Israeli teenagers themselves. Naturally, they relate the things they are learning about to their own lives, specifically to anti-Arab feeling and to hatred of foreigners.  They talk about issues of identity, intermarriage and assimilation.  The young man from Sderot compares the difficulties of children survivors to his own growing up without a father.  One teen talks about his brother who went on a prolonged hunger strike against the occupation when it came to the time of his draft.  The Arab girl talks about her family's history -- they are from Ban'a, a village near Carmiel, and her great grandmother (who was pregnant at the time) was forced to flee to Acco during the fighting in 1948, while her great grandfather was detained for six months.

As they follow in the footsteps of those who were rescued, the teens climb the mountains of Austria to cross over the border to Italy.  The mountain climbing guide is a German man whose father served in the S.S.  He shares his disappointment in his father who still, to this day, cannot admit that he was a soldier fighting in an unjust war.

The Escape (Ha'Brichah) -- 75 minutes -- is about how lessons of history are interpreted and understood by Israeli young people today.  The film is available from Ruth Diskin.

Rita

In Israel today, the pop singer, Rita, has become a singing sensation. Born in Iran in 1962, she came to Israel at the age of 8 with her family.  Rita was married to the popular composer and singer, Rami Kleinstein and they have two daughters - Meshi and Noam.

Documentary filmmaker Ayal Goldberg follows Rita in his film, Rita Jahan Foruz, over the course of a year.  We accompany her as she travels to Istanbul for a concert; we watch as she talks about growing up in Iran, how as a child she had to hide the fact that she was Jewish; we feel for her as she talks about her divorce and her obsessive need to be withdrawn from others.

Rita is however very connected to her family -- we see her singing and fooling around with her daughters, cooking for her extended tight-knit family, her relationship with her aging father and talking about the pain that he has suffered in his lifetime. She is close to her mother, also a great singer, an elegant woman. Together they travel to Los Angeles to visit her uncle, her mother's brother, and in a touching scene, she sings in Farsi with her uncle and talks about memories of her childhood.

She has become an international phenomenon and a cultural ambassador.   An internet headline states: Rita's music succeeds where diplomacy can't! 

 As a result of her latest album, My Joys, recorded in both Hebrew and Farsi (which is her native tongue), she has surprisingly become a hit in Iran!  In a great scene, she skypes with a fan who explains that her album is obviously not available in shops in Iran but that bootleg copies are available!

In March 2013, Rita was invited to sing at the United Nations.  The U.N. delegate who introduces her refers to the magic of music to transcend cultures and build bridges and connect people.  In the hall of the General Assembly, she sings and quotes classical Persian poetry and tells the audience in Farsi: When you ignore the pain of others, you are not worthy of being called a man.

Rita Jahan Foruz is a documentary of 91 minutes, available from Go2Films.  A shorter version will also be available soon!

Dancing in Jaffa

Dancing in Jaffa, directed by Hilla Medalia, was this year's film that opened the DocAviv Film festival in Tel Aviv.  It is a full-length (87 minutes) documentary film about breaking barriers between Jewish and Palestinian youngsters in Jaffa.  

The following is a guest posting by my daughter, Sari Kronish, who has previously posted reviews on this blog --

Pierre Dulaine was born in Jaffa in 1944 and was four-years-old in 1948, when his family - Palestinian mother and Irish father - was displaced. He grew up in the United States and became a ballroom dancer and teacher. As he says very early on in the film: his dream was to come back to his hometown one day and impart some of his life lessons to the children of Jaffa. The documentary film Dancing in Jaffa tells the story of how he fulfilled this dream. 

Pierre decided to bring his successful New York City based project Dancing Classrooms to Jaffa. The project is not simply about teaching ballroom dancing. Rather, dance is a tool for getting the children to break down social barriers, learn about honor and respect, treat others carefully, improve self-confidence, communicate and cooperate, and accept others even if they are different. 

Four Jaffa schools are chosen to partake in the project: two Jewish-Israeli schools and two Palestinian-Israeli schools, though it becomes clear that at least two of the schools are partially mixed. Pierre confesses that he has a special kinship to the Palestinian children, not only because of his personal background but also because he wants to grant them the opportunity for a better life. The film includes a close glimpse into the lives of three pupils: two Palestinians, a boy and a girl, and one Jewish girl. The Palestinian boy is the son of a fisherman whose mother is a refugee from Gaza. The film even follows the boy on one of his trips with his mother to visit her family in Gaza. The Palestinian girl is introverted and mourning the death of her father. She slowly comes out of her shell during the film. The Jewish girl is also growing up without a father. Her mother is pushing her to win the contest and she's the one to explain that the project is not about winning the contest. 

The film is filled with many touching, even humorous and slightly awkward moments. Pierre is a quirky, somewhat old-fashioned, well-intentioned character, who speaks simple Arabic and picks up a few Hebrew words as the project progresses. 

Watching the film is a real treat, filled with beautifully shot scenes of life in Jaffa and a unique window into a life-changing experience, crossing gender, religious and national barriers. 

Dancing in Jaffa is available from Go2Films.