Memory Forest, directed by Roman Shumunov, is a new prizewinning TV series, made for Israel TV Kan. The series tells the story of a journey to Poland of a group of Israeli high school students.
The story is about 2 sets of friends – Shani and Lilush from
Carmiel and Kobi and Omri from Herzliyah.
There is plenty of flirting between the girls and boys, and it seems
that Shani is having trouble connecting to the subject matter and Omri seems to
be a real jerk at the beginning. But
things even out, as we get to know them, and as their anxieties become
clear. Episode #1 is about Warsaw.
Episode #2 takes place at Treblinka. Episode no. 3 is at Lublin and episode no.
4 is in the forest.
I sit on the committee of the Film and Media Collaborative
(made up of representatives of three funds: Gesher, Maimonides, and AviChai)
which funded this series. Honestly, we
were all a bit apprehensive that the program might turn out to be too much of a
teaching unit and also a bit formulaic.
I was thrilled to have a chance to preview the entire series this week
and it was great! The script, the
acting, the historical teaching moments all were superb and I am proud to have
been a small part of this project!
This series offers a mix between telling the story of the
Shoah, on the one hand, and the experience as seen through the eyes of the
young people, on the other. There are
many moving scenes, including the one at Treblinka, where we learn about the 17,000
stones in memory of the children and adults who were murdered there – every single
day. There is the nationalistic argument
as seen through the expression of one boy who reacts with anger, saying that
having ceremonies isn’t the only way to commemorate. There are the moments when they are trying
desperately to understand the meaning of the trip, the meaning of being
survivors, the importance of how this trip reflects on their Jewishness, all so
that the victims will not have died in vain. There is the teenage girl who doesn’t want to
spend any money in Poland because everyone there is anti-semitic but she is
surprised to learn that Rivka, their accompanying survivor, wants to go take
advantage of the shopping. We watch as these young people grow and slowly begin
to understand so much about their own place within this story of memory.
Memory Forest is a TV series made up of 4
episodes, each approximately 30 minutes.
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