The Survivor in a Tuxedo - a new documentary film about Elie Wiesel by veteran filmmaker, David Fisher

The Survivor in a Tuxedo, Tracing Elie Wiesel is a new documentary, directed by David Fisher, a veteran documentary filmmaker, noted for his films, including The Round Number, Six Million and One, and Love Inventory.

This new film, which is both complex and fascinating, on the famous Holocaust survivor, author, spokesman, storyteller and public figure Eli Wiesel (1928-2016), premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival last night. I viewed the film, with my husband, Ron Kronish, and since we both loved the film, the review below is from both of us.

Introducing the people who worked on the film, at the screening last night, the director David Fisher talked about his father, also a survivor.  His father came from a town not so far from Wiesel’s in Romania, and they were on the same train to Auschwitz, but their paths were so different.  Elie Wiesel used the power of the word to give witness, non-stop, to what happened to the Jews in the Shoah.  Fisher’s father, instead, took up arms and became part of the struggle defending and creating the modern State of Israel, working as a pioneer in the new state, using deeds instead of words to cope with what he had experienced at Auschwitz.  The stories of these two Holocaust survivors are weaved together in this intensely personal and poignant documentary film.

Using interviews, animation, and raw footage, which are all weaved together brilliantly, Fisher has made a complicated and respectful portrayal of this famous Jewish thinker and activist.   We learn a great deal about Wiesel’s thinking, writing, activism and leadership in the USA and internationally.  Wiesel’s strength was seen and heard in his many speeches and his prolific literature. Throughout his career, he was always involved in giving witness, in keeping the memory of the Shoah alive. He was relentless in this mission.  Wiesel wrote 58 books in his lifetime and he had a clear agenda.

The film provides an intimate portrayal of this historic figure in contemporary Jewish history and does not shy away from some of the controversial issues which came to be associated with Elie Wiesel in his later years. For example, many people were critical of him because he became wealthy, and they accused him of using the Holocaust to get rich. Others were unhappy that he didn’t raise his voice to denounce Israel’s immoral policies against the Palestinians living under Occupation, since he had raised his voice for so many oppressed people in so many other places in the world. Others were bothered that Bibi Netanyahu used him as a prop in the gallery when he spoke in the US Congress against President Obama’s policies with regard to negotiating with Iran.

Other people were critical of his need for more and more international recognition.  Wiesel was a man of great ambition, dreaming of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature.  He never received that prize, but he did receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication and work in areas of human rights around the world.  He said many times in many places that we must have a moral voice and may never stand silent. Yet, perhaps because he was a Holocaust survivor and a strong supporter of the state of Israel, he was not able to use his voice to be critical of it, as noted above.

Michael Berenbaum, who served for many years as the project director at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke at the screening and also figured prominently in the film. He spoke about Wiesel’s power to “transform victimization into witness”.   The title of the film—The Survivor in the Tuxedo—summarizes the irony inherent in Elie Wiesel’s “witness”. On the one hand, he was a survivor, with a strong message and constantly bearing witness to the Shoah. On the other hand, he became a celebrity in the USA and internationally, hobnobbing with presidents and kings, and ultimately receiving the Nobel Prize for peace. 

Wiesel was an important Jewish thinker and activist in contemporary history. He was a complex man, but one with a message and a method. His message was to remember the Shoah. His method was his writing and speaking. This excellent film helps us all understand a nuanced and complex view of this man.

The Survivor in a Tuxedo is a fantastic documentary film (71 minutes) and was made for broadcast on KAN Israeli TV by Fisher Features Ltd. 

 

The Fourth Window – a new film about the life and success of Amos Oz

 Last night, I watched on Israel public television a documentary film about the life and work of Amos Oz entitled The Fourth Window. The film -- directed by Yair Qedar --was amazingly beautiful and crafted with great professional artistry. 

Amos Oz (1939-2018) was a tremendously successful novelist who represented Israel to audiences and readers around the world.  His books appeared in 40 countries and he traveled to lecture and receive honors in so many of those places. He also wrote numerous newspaper columns, writing about the turmoil of a country that was growing and developing as he was writing about it.  He especially had the courage to write about the dangers of the military occupation of another people –and the importance of reaching a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians -- and as a result, another well-known Israeli author, Etgar Keret, called him a secular prophet!

This is a profound portrayal of a successful novelist with so much tragedy in his own life.  He wrote more than 30 novels, many of which were about family. In the film, Oz says that the material that a good author uses comes from his own pain or suffering.  And he had more than his share of suffering.  At the age of 12, his mother committed suicide.  And near the end of his life, one of his daughters wrote a book about how her father caused her so much physical and mental pain.  He became estranged from her, and no matter how hard he tried, he was never able to gain her forgiveness.

The film includes archival footage, interviews with well-known literary figures, wonderful photos, and film clips from the film adaptations that were produced based on Amos Oz novels – My Michael (directed by Dan Wolman), The Black Box (directed by Y. Levanon) and A Tale of Love and Darkness (directed by Natalie Portman) – each controversial and fascinating in its own way. 

Perhaps the most moving part of the film was its use of taped interviews between Amos Oz and Nurith Gertz, his biographer.  Dying of cancer, Oz called Gertz and asked her to write his biography.  These interviews frame the film, providing openings to each section, and offering heartfelt material told by Oz himself, much of it about the difficulties of glory and the suffering within his own family.

The film also tells the story of the author’s life, from his growing up in Jerusalem, to his rebellion against his father when he changed his name from Klausner and moved to Kibbutz Hulda, where he married and built a family.   Indeed, life on the kibbutz –especially the interpersonal problems that arise from living in a collective community—form the backdrop for many of Oz’s early novels. In doing so, he helped to demystify kibbutz society, which was all too often seen only in the context of the pioneering spirit in the early years of the state, in which the individual was required to sacrifice himself or herself for the community, without asking too many questions.

The Fourth Window (documentary, 85 minutes) is an in-depth film, a must-see for anyone interested in Hebrew literature, especially the life and novels of Amos Oz.  You can watch here the trailer (with English subtitles).

The next film in the series, also made by Yair Qedar, is about A. B. Yehoshua and will be screened in October.