NATAN - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014 (TJFF 2014) - French Cinema's Pioneer

I AM NOT BERNARD NATAN, I AM A FILM OF BERNARD NATAN

NATAN'S LEGACY
FRENCH CINEMA

Natan (2013) ****
Dir. David Cairns and Paul Duane
Writ. David Cairns, Prod. Paul Duane

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Antisemitism is responsible for erasing the memory of Bernard Natan. He was, in many ways, the Father of French Cinema as we now know and love it. This visionary Romanian-Jew who made Paris his home from childhood onwards was eventually the victim of Nazi genocide in Auschwitz, but if there can be anything more horrific than that, the legacy of Bernard Natan was first tarnished by a series of Vichy-and-Nazi-orchestrated smear campaigns, prosecutions and persecutions, but has further been obliterated from the history books by the sullying at the hands of American academic Joseph W. Slade at Ohio University who proclaimed and furthered the myth that Natan was not only a pornographer, but in fact, acted in the hard-core films he purportedly produced, engaging in on-screen sexual acts including bestiality.

To say this is appalling is an understatement of enormous proportions and we must bless and kiss the ground walked on by filmmakers David Cairns and Paul Duane for making the film Natan and righting the wrongs that so many have never bothered to even think about doing.

The film details a bevy of important facts about Natan, beginning with his arrival in Paris as Natan Tannenzaft and his early years working as a lab technician and projectionist in the burgeoning motion picture industry. Changing his name to Bernard Natan, we're given what few facts remain about Natan's involvement in pornography and frankly, other than being charged and convicted with several other individuals for the distribution of obscene materials, it's clear the young man was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Besides, even if he had been peripherally or directly involved in the manufacture of pornographic films, one could surely condemn a long list of important filmmakers for such scabrous activities including everyone from Francis Ford Coppola's early foray into film via a nudie feature The Bellboy and the Playgirl, to a highly esteemed Canadian mogul who once demanded that a young art-film director in his charge add more "woman on woman" action to his film because "the man [who goes to the movies] likes the woman with the woman, but more importantly, the woman [who goes to the movies] loves the woman with the woman, too." (And full disclosure, lest some readers charge me with being the pot calling the kettle black, I co-wrote and produced the controversial Bubbles Galore, a feature length satire of pornography starring Nina Hartley, Annie Sprinkle, Penthouse Pet Shauny Sexton, a whole whack o' strippers as well as some of Canada's finest legit actors Daniel MacIvor, Tracy Wright, Thea Gill and many others.)

Natan's real achievements quickly eclipsed all the aforementioned pornography nonsense. Not only did Natan build a huge sound studio BEFORE sound, he pioneered several aspects of film technology, art and the business of making, distributing and exhibiting film. In 1929, his company Pathé-Natan was born when he purchased the reigning French studio and in spite of the Stock Market Crash and subsequent Great Depression, Natan took Pathé to unbelievable heights.

Profits were huge, Natan began to back several filmmakers to produce some of the greatest epics in French cinema's history (Joan of Arc, Les Miserables) and he invested huge amounts of capital into the research and development of such groundbreaking cinematic technical developments as anamorphic lenses and cinemascope. Natan was, without question a visionary who contributed to the explosion of French Cinema as a major artistic force that created indigenous product for a French-speaking market, thus putting a major damper on Hollywood's desire to dominate the world marketplace (to an extent that the studios predicted "English" would become the leading world language).

Astonishingly, when Natan heard that pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès had been reduced to bankruptcy, he sent regular cheques to the filmmaker at the little toyshop he worked in.

BERNARD NATAN
A MAN ERASED by
ANTI-SEMITISM

The film argues quite successfully that Natan's devotion to FRENCH cinema was unparalleled and that the true groundwork was laid by his vision and genius. Alas, vision and genius invite enemies and when several members of the Pathé board (one of whom was tied to the Nazis in Germany and others who become dirty Vichy pigs when the Nazis invaded), decided Natan had to be taken apart - piece by piece. Not only was Natan charged with fraud, but a disgraceful campaign attacking his Jewish roots and questioning his French citizenship was instituted without mercy. Natan was eventually imprisoned and it was during this time that the Nazis and Vichy took control. Natan was singled out in Nazi Documents as a Jew, a pornographer and directly responsible for sullying the French people and he was released, only to be sent to the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

We learn that after he'd been murdered by the Nazis, the French Government tried and convicted him even further and in absentia (death). We learn that in France, there are no monuments to Natan. Even more egregious is that the famed French film school La femis exists on the first sound studio built in France, Natan's studio, yet there is nothing to honour him and none of the students have any idea that their school is on sacred ground, nor do they even know who Bernard Natan was.

Natan is a deeply and profoundly moving film that expertly seeks to place the great man of French Cinema where he truly belongs. Cairns and Duane create a brilliant and downright imaginative artistic vessel to tell Natan's story. The film is narrated, NOT by Natan, but by the film itself. The documentary is personified as "a FILM about Bernard Natan" and we are led through his life story by a mysterious figure who appears first as Natan, but is transformed, through the magic of cinema into a figure wearing what appears to be a paper bag over his head, one which has been configured in an odd Papier Mâché mask resembling Natan. The "film" narrates and is skillfully interspersed with a series of superb interviews with a variety of cinema experts, Natan's surviving family, a wealth of archival footage, photos and clips as well as from Natan's output as a production chief.

Yes, we also see the offending pornographic material and though some of the shots bear a slight resemblance to Natan, it's also pointed out how the dates of production are incongruous with Natan's genuine rise to power. No studio head would need or want to be making hard-core pornography.

The footage detailing the anti-Semitic slags against Natan during his fall from grace are heartbreaking beyond belief - so much so, that one is not only shocked by what occurred in the past, but that there's been so little done until this film to restore Natan's place in cinema history.

Having a "film about Natan" telling the tale isn't the only interesting approach, but it's a stroke of mad genius that Natan's image be cloaked with a receptacle to hide his identity. It somehow parallels the idiotic assertions of the aforementioned academic Joseph Slade who appears on camera reading from his seemingly spurious paper which declares that Natan "unquestionably" generated hardcore pornography, appeared in it and "bled [Pathé] to ruin". The film presents this as the utter nonsense it is and Slade comes off like some stuffed shirt bonehead who defends his paper by declaring that the films that came in his possession once belonged to actor Michel (Boudu Saved From Drowning) Simon who not only owned the largest collection of pornography in France, but "said" the films were made by Natan. Someone "said" this. What a pathetic tidbit to base this academic assassination on.

"Scholarship" by the - ahem - esteemed
Professor Joseph Slade

Finally, Natan is an absolute must-see film for anyone who cares about French Cinema, but furthermore, anyone who cares about cinema period. Without him, this God-given art might not even exist as it does now. This is a film that changes all that. It is as important a work as it is a lovingly crafted little work of art unto itself.

My only quibble is that I'd have enjoyed seeing Professor Slade adorned with a huge dunce cap over his entire head - a huge white cone with eyeholes cut out and resembling a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Well, I can at least dream about it.

Natan makes its Canadian Premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014 (TJFF) For tickets and info, visit the festival's website HERE.

GOD'S SLAVE (aka Esclavo de Dios) - Review By Greg Klymkiw - TJFF 2014 - Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014

Vando Villamil is David, a Mossad agent fighting terrorism in Argentina

GOD'S SLAVE - Esclavo de Dios
Who is the slave?

GOD'S SLAVE (2013) ***1/2
Dir. Joel Novoa, Script: Fernando Butazzoni
Starring: Mohammed Al-Khaldi, Vando Villamil

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Some of the best cat and mouse thrillers that feature two characters on opposite sides of the equation will often present a surface duality, but as the picture progresses, the filmmakers will provide a number of analogous aspects twixt both parties which almost always, if not too obviously splashed on, add the kind of shading and moral complexity that allows the work to rise above the tropes of the genre. God's Slave, tersely directed by Joel Novoa from a finely wrought screenplay by Fernando Butazzoni is just such a film and as such, presents a tale that is as suspenseful as it is rooted within a deep humanity and understanding of the kind of conflicts ripping the world apart. What puts the film on an even loftier pedestal of quality are the shadings within each of the main characters that provide inner conflicts that betray their respective personal struggles with the dualities that nag at both of them.

Ahmed (Mohammed Al-Khaldi), a devout Muslim in Venezuala lives a seemingly charmed life as a successful doctor with a loving family. Alas, he is burdened with the haunting memory of his principled father (often accused of being a pro-Israeli Muslim) assassinated before his eyes by a masked Israeli agent. Ahmed's path, then, is clear. Willingly selected as a sleeper terrorist, he bides his time and waits for the moment when he'll be called by Allah to commit a suicide terrorist action. David (Vando Villamil) is a top Mossad agent in Argentina who lays, as if in wait, to either clean up and/or prevent terrorist acts. He is a devout Jew, similarly haunted by violent actions in his past and though he also has a family that loves him, he is so obsessed with his calling to fight terrorism that he's growing further and further away from those who care for him them most. These two men are dominated by past tragedies in their lives and are both on missions to destroy. The movie places both on an inevitable collision course, allowing us to get to know and respect both men. This, if anything, is what generates some of the nail-biting suspense, placing us on the edge of our seats, hoping and praying they'll find some way of reconciling that which haunts them and in so doing, avoid the inevitable confrontation that could mean death for both of them and possibly many others.

Mohammed Al-Khaledi is Ahmed,
a devout Muslim on a deadly mission.

This is one excruciating journey we take with both men and all the more so, as sides and motivations become blurred by their respective obsessions. I love the fact that the filmmakers have chosen to keep the title in a singular form. One of the wonderful aspects of the storytelling is that both men are, to varying degrees, slaves of God. This places equal weight and emphasis on both characters which better allows us to experience their similarities and differences. Finally, though, we get to fully appreciate how one man allows his devotion to God get in the way of what really allows him to be one with God, while the other is so entrenched in God's slavery that he's unable to ascertain the difference between God's Word and man's.

Inspired by true events, director Novoa brings a rich, effective mise-en-scène to the table, utilizing a perfect blend of classical compositions and movement with the harried, documentary-like immediacy of hand-held perspectives. The latter, however, if always expertly achieved and feels like it's been planned down to its last detail, avoiding the sloppy herky-jerky of those directors who are ultimately masking their directorial incompetence (Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Same Mendes, to name a few), but also creating his own sense of floating-like handheld movement as opposed to aping the riveting, expertly-fashioned Paul Greengrass/Kathryn Bigelow styles. Novoa uses both approaches, the classical and the documentary to bring a sense of intimacy that allows for the visceral suspense to blend perfectly with writer Buttazoni's intelligent, delicately wrought screenplay.

God's Slave is so compulsively gripping and well made, that I was the tiniest bit disappointed with its denouement which seems far too pat, too resolute, if you will. While everything up to the slam-bang climax ticks like clockwork, the story has an added beat that might have been so much better if left more ambiguous which, frankly, would seem to have flowed more honestly with the movie as a whole. As it stands, the final beat almost feels like the kind of thing an American Hollywood remake would bring to bear upon the material and coming close to negating the power and intent of all that's preceded it. My brief dissatisfaction here, is not the end of the world for this fine picture, just the kind of annoyance that often trips up that which is not only skilfully directed, edited and acted, but otherwise presents a fresh take on familiar material.

God's Slave is playing at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014. For tickets, visit the TJFF website HERE.

TEN FROM YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS - Review By Greg Klymkiw - TJFF 2014 - Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014

Ten From Your Show of Shows (1973) *****
Dir. Max Liebman, Prod. Pat Weaver, Writers: Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner
Starring: Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris

Review By Greg Klymkiw

To coin a phrase from the title of Alan Zweig's recent documentary masterpiece, be prepared to experience - beyond all your wildest hopes and dreams - a time when Jews were funny. I mean funny!!! Really, really funny.

If there is anything on television today that's even a pubic hair as brilliant as Your Show of Shows, I'd like to know what it is. Watching this 1973 feature length compilation of ten classic sketches from the immortal variety series that aired on NBC from 1950-1954, I was delightfully transported to a time and place when comedians could have you in stitches just by appearing on-screen - completely in character and bearing the gait and posture that offered a mere taste of the hilarity to come. Each sketch is a perfectly crafted gem with a solid narrative coat hanger by which to display gags of the highest order and performed with the kind of chemistry and zeal that seems so lacking in contemporary comedy. These were giants, kings and gods of the universe of laughter.

Astonishingly, the show was performed in a real theatre, with a real audience and broadcast LIVE to the world and even more amazing is that the company of actors NEVER ad-libbed - they stuck completely to the brilliant scripts and meticulous choreography of both the basic blocking and the kind of slapstick that modern comedians can only dream of being able to pull off.

Much of this is attributable to the direction of Max Liebman, a pioneer of live television comedy who knew that the very best way to capture the material was to use the camera like a closeup proscenium and most of all, to place a great deal of emphasis on rehearsal to nail every dramatic and comic beat with perfection and to ensure that the performers hit their marks perfectly - after all, when the show is going out live to millions, there are NO second chances. Liebman is, in some ways, the real unsung genius of contemporary screen comedy. He not only directed the precursor to "Your Show of Shows" (a ninety-minute two part live broadcast with Jack Carter in Chicago and Caesar, Coca and Reiner in New York), but he spent eons producing live comedy and variety reviews in the Poconos where he cut his teeth on sketch comedy that demanded perfection.

Though the cast features an excellent array of many regular performers and guest stars, the quartet who led the Show of Shows charge were Sid Caesar, always taking the skewed leading man role, the leggy plasticine-faced Imogene Coca in the equally skewed leading lady roles, the deadpan, pole-up-the-butt Carl Reiner always an authority figure and last, but not least, the genius that was Howard Morris who could do just about anything (and did).

The collection of sketches provided here is no mixed bag of nuts in terms of quality - each and every one is a scrumptious morsel and these rich comic comestibles are beautifully assembled to provide a perfect arc of laughs from beginning to end, but also offer-up the sort of amazing scope of material that this team of artisans attacked.

I'll describe three sketches to give you a sense of what you're in for.

The first sketch in the compilation is a lovely sampling of a simple two-hander where we learn that wifey Coca has ploughed the family car through the front window of a liquor store. When hubby Caesar gets home from a hard day on Madison Avenue, Coca needs to do everything in her power to keep hubby from driving the car, but to also test the waters as to just how furious he's going to be when he hears the news. At one point, she goes so far as to recount the accident in a third person narrative to see how hubby reacts. Caesar hilariously laughs off the tale of woe, commiserating with the poor schmuck who is, no doubt, smarting over the knowledge that he let his dumb wife actually drive the car.

Uh-oh.

Hilarity ensues even more at this point, though the tale offers up an extremely satisfying and touching conclusion.

The centrepiece sketch is one of the earliest examples of a movie parody, a brilliant spoof of Fred Zinneman's adaptation of James Jones's From Here To Eternity with Carl Reiner hilariously pinning a row of medals into Sid Caesar's flesh, a magnificent USO dance-club scene that offers-up Caesar and Reiner's rivalry over dime-a-dance gal Coca and during the rendition of the famous beach scene, Caesar shows up in a rubber ducky tube around his waist and once he and Coca settle in for some amore, they're repeatedly interrupted by bucket loads of water splashed in their faces. (Oh, and I'm just guessing here, but chances are good that most of this sketch was written by head writer Mel Brooks, cinema's king of movie parodies like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.)

The concluding sketch is pure slapstick genius. It's a parody of the Ralph Edwards program "This is Your Life" which gives us a healthy glimpse at the huge theatre and audience assembled for the live broadcast by including a big scene offstage and on the orchestra floor, but also provides a marvellous all-you-can-eat offering of the magnificent Howard Morris and his unbelievably insane ability to render physical comedy. In this case, he's so monkey-like that he gives the overrated Planet of the Apes reboot star Andy Serkis a major run for his money. Morris doesn't need CGI - the guy simply transforms into a variety of simian poses in the unlikeliest of settings.

These then are but three of ten great sketches and I can't think of a single one that doesn't offer up huge laughs. One sketch is presented in silent movie pantomime style, another offers the quartet as clock pieces on a German clock that's just not working, another is a two hander with Caesar and Morris as the most rigid, pole-up-the-butt Germans imaginable, another involving Morris wagging a huge dill pickle in front of a very hungry Sid Caesar's face - the list goes on. Laughs galore.

I remember first seeing this compilation when it played first-run at a movie theatre in Winnipeg. I was maybe 13 or 14 years old and I still remember the great feeling of being in a cinema in the North End seeing this work for the first time, rolling on the floor with laughter and surrounded by mostly older people who seemed to be laughing so loud that in retrospect, (this was long before the advent of "Depends") I now wonder just how many of them were able to control their bladders. My recent helping of Ten From Your Show Of Shows certainly provided my own bladder with challenges, so anyone planning to catch the TJFF screening of this great 90 minutes of pure hilarity would be best advised to, shall we say, come prepared for any expulsions triggered by laughter.

As live television during the Golden Age proved time and time again, anything was possible.

Ten From Your Show Of Shows plays the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF) 2014. For fix and info visit their website HERE.

THE GERMAN DOCTOR (aka WAKOLDA) - Review By Greg Klymkiw - TJFF 2014 - Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014

Just looking at the brilliant Alex Brendemuhl as Josef Mengele
makes you feel mired in filth and in need of a good scrub.

Astonishing newcomer
Florencia Bado delivers
a knockout performance
as the very unfortunate apple
of Dr. Josef Mengele's eye.

The German Doctor Dir. Lucia Puenzo (2013) ***
Starring: Alex Brendemuhl, Florencia Bado, Natalia Oreiro,
Diego Peretti, Elena Roger
Review By Greg Klymkiw

From the very first moment we see Dr. Gregor (Alex Brendemuhl) eyeballing the fetching little girl Lilith (Florencia Bado), it's a fait accompli that this film is heading for dangerous territory. Based on director Lucia Penzo's novel, in turn a fiction rooted in fact, it's even more obvious that a living Hell awaits us when the good doctor takes a room in the family-owned Patagonia hotel of Lilith's Mom and Dad (Natalia Oreiro, Diego Peretti) and even worse, that his obsessions with: (a) assisting Dad in perfecting the design of toy dolls, (b) offering to fix Lilith's recessive genes to cure her stunted growth and (c) taking special interest in Mom's pregnancy with twins, suggest he's not all he seems to be. That Dr. Gregor is spending far too much time in this beautiful out of the way Argentinian town with other German gentlemen bandying about the word Führer and that a concerned photographer (Elena Roger) is making secret telephone calls to Israel whilst being suspiciously looked-upon by the town's upstanding Aryans, we're even more convinced that the well-dressed, soft-spoken Dr. Gregor is none other than the epitome of Nazi evil, crazed geneticist Dr. Joseph Mengele.

The German Doctor makes for compelling viewing on two counts. First of all, there is a definite grace and intelligence with which Puenzo unfolds this chilling tale and secondly, and perhaps most of all, the performances on every level are charged with the stuff of supremely bravura work. Brendemuhl as Mengele is chillingly muted, but at the same time, he occasionally lets the ooze of evil creep out so subtly that we almost feel tainted by having to lay eyes on him -- even to the point where we feel like we need to scrub away the filth he sullies us with, by his mere presence. This is certainly a brilliant and brave piece of work.

The newcomer Florencia Bado has a magnificent screen presence. The camera clearly loves her and she tackles her role as the diminutive Lilith with natural ability and surprising maturity. The scenes where Brendemuhl and Bado share screen time are especially creepy and much of this comes from the chemistry between both actors.

Director Puenzo does not ever really create the mise-en-scène of a thriller, but rather allows the material to move at the pace of a straight-up drama (albeit one infused with sheer evil and darkness). We are, for example, never in the territory of Franklin J. Schaffner's nerve-jangling, bigger-than-life film adaptation of Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil, but are sucked into a whirlpool on a much smaller scale so that Puenzo can concentrate on the subtleties of character.

Alex Brendemuhl and Florencia Bado: Creepy Chemistry

Since she does not want to be in thriller territory, part of me feels bad saying that her approach seems far too muted given the intensity of the material. Yes, this is her intent, but there is the old saying that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" and if we apply the interpretation of said meaning that the intent yields the kind of cinematic inaction that feels far too precious, then I do think it's worth mentioning that the film's whole is, indeed less than the sum of its parts.

The problem for me is that when we edge closer to the utter horror of the tale, there's an inevitability to it that detracts from the picture's overall ability to deliver a genuine knockout punch. I appreciate Puenzo's desire to handle her material with both taste and detachment, but there are times, when good, old fashioned Hollywood "vulgarity" can yield far more satisfying experiences and still manage to do so with taste, style and a good dose of slam-bang. It is, however, a worthy effort even as is.

The German Doctor makes its Toronto premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF 2014). For tickets and showtimes, contact the festival website HERE. It opens theatrically in Toronto via A-Z Films on May 9, 2014.

RAQUEL: A MARKED WOMAN & FROM HOLLYWOOD TO NUREMBERG: JOHN FORD, SAMUEL FULLER, GEORGE STEVENS Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2014 (TJFF 2014) - Two Docs, Great Material, Mediocre Execution

Raquel Liberman
Forced Into Sex Slavery

Raquel: A Marked Woman (2013) **1/2
Dir. Gabriela Böhm

Review By Greg Klymkiw

There's a great story here. At the turn of the 20th Century, a wave of Jewish immigrants settled in Argentina to begin a new life. Alas, the Old World has a way of following everybody. When Raquel Liberman and her two sons came to join her husband in the South American country, unexpected hard times weakened her husband to a point wherein he fell ill and eventually died of tuberculosis. Duped into accepting a seamstress job, she's coerced into prostitution by the powerful criminal organization Zvi Magdal.

She services so many clients that eventually she can buy her freedom and sets herself up as a successful business woman. The gangsters feel this will send a wrong signal, so they assign one of their own to seduce Raquel then marry her. The wooing is successful and under Argentinian law at the time, all her money and property is transferred to her husband who squanders it and sends her back to work in the brothels. Unwilling to accept that this will be her fate, Raquel does the unthinkable and takes on the mighty Jewish Mafia of Argentina. Her brave efforts smashed the criminal organization and she was single-handedly responsible for saving thousands of women from sexual slavery.

Is this not a great story? Of course it is, and it's a true story as well. Unfortunately, the film leaves a fair bit to be desired. It's a very conventional television-style documentary with a competent assemblage of archival footage and interviews. Dragging things down to even more conventional levels, the filmmaker foists a whack of cheesy dramatic recreations upon us that are also reminiscent of television doc tropes of the most egregious kind.

Perhaps someday, this will be made into a great feature length dramatic film by a director with some style and panache like Steven Spielberg or Darren Aronofsky and then Raquel's haunting, strangely uplifting story will get the royal treatment. In the meantime, we will have to make do with this by-the-numbers work that at least presents the material to make us aware of this tragic tale in the lives of Jewish women in South America and the bravery of one of them to not take it anymore.

Kudos are in order for bringing the tale to light, but that's about all one can recommend here.

Harrowing Footage from WWII

From Hollywood To Nuremberg: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens (2012) **1/2
Dir: Christian Delage
Review By Greg Klymkiw

This should have been a great film, but it's far too compact to do little more than skim the surface. The film focuses upon the film unit of the American Armed Forces during World War II and their mission to capture footage of America's war effort. This resulted in several powerful Academy Award winning documentaries and important propaganda films in favour of America's war efforts. We get glimpses into the official work of directors John Ford and George Stevens and the unofficial work of infantryman Samuel Fuller who shot footage with a small movie camera as his unit, The Big Red One (also the title of his 1980 autobiographical war film), made their way from D-Day to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

There is an attempt to look at the filmmakers' output before and after the war to display how the carnage they shot changed the way they made movies in later years. This is, sadly, the least successful portion of the movie. A project of this scope and complexity deserved an exhaustive Ken Burns-styled documentary epic crossed with Scorsese's monumental filmmaking documentaries. The approach here, though, is cursory at best and goes so far as to virtually ignore the efforts of Frank Capra during this period when so many filmmakers turned their attention away from what they were doing in order to do this duty for their country.

Still, the film is worth seeing for explaining how and why this motion picture unit existed and most importantly, the haunting footage provided of battle, camp liberation and the aftermath of the war. Until such a time as someone does tackle this important story in a proper manner, this middle of the road effort will have to do.

Raquel: A Marked Woman and From Hollywood To Nuremberg: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens are both playing at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival (TJFF 2014). For tickets, visit the festival website HERE.