Compelling real-life stories

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Politics, tragedy, love and friendship. In broad strokes, these are the themes of the movies in the first-ever Vancouver Jewish Film Festival Mini-Fest. This week, the Independent reviews four of the eight films featured in the three-day cinematic event; next week, the remaining four.

Kicking off the festival is the sobering tale of Robert and Gérald Finaly. Hidden Children, or L'Affaire Finaly, is based on their real-life story, which began in France. Prior to their parents' deportation to the death camps during the Holocaust, the young brothers were left in the care of someone their parents trusted. Soon after, this woman's life was in danger, so she took the boys to the nearby Catholic church, who in turn left the boys with Antoinette Brun, a devout Catholic.

Right after the war, the boys' aunt in Israel tried to gain custody of them, but Brun was so attached to the children that she refused to turn them over. At first, she ignored the aunt's letters. Next, Brun stalled the legal order to return the children to their relatives by demanding their parents' death certificates before she would relinquish guardianship. When this failed, she had the boys baptized – since they were then Catholics, the church clergy did all they could to keep them from being returned to their Jewish family. The boys were shuttled from one hiding place to another, Brun was even arrested and jailed for a while. It took years before the situation was resolved.

It's a fascinating, almost unbelievable, story. Charlotte de Turckheim as Brun is amazing, making viewers both hate and empathize with her character. Overall, the movie is worth seeing, even though it's slow in parts. Much of the action is the moving of the boys from place to place and these scenes could have been more tightly edited.

Another film that could have had a few more frames left on the cutting room floor is Nymphs in the Mist. An Israeli romantic comedy, the main character is Yaniv, a smart, intelligent, sensitive guy, whose girlfriend, Liat, has broken up with him. Depressed, he sleeps a lot and watches many romantic comedies, such as When Harry Met Sally (with Hebrew subtitles). His best friend, Yuda, is the typical buddy in such movies, the foil to Yaniv, so Yuda is average looking, not-so smart and incredibly insensitive. To help Yaniv out of his funk, Yuda comes up with the idea of making a moving, in order for them both to meet single, beautiful women in the audition process. Much to Yuda's chagrin, Yaniv takes the idea seriously and actually writes a script and tries to get it produced. Along the way, Yaniv and Yuda take a yoga class (no doubt to meet women) and Yaniv falls for Gali, the instructor.

Twists and turns of the plot abound, some of which are quite amusing. The acting is solid in all parts, so it's easy to watch. The real pitfall of the movie is the ending – it's strange and will leave many viewers unsatisfied.

A completely satisfying movie is Two Ladies (Dans La Vie). Although the acting is uneven, the main characters are convincing and the story is delightful. Taking place in France at the time of the Second Lebanon War, Two Ladies begins with Selima, a nurse who travels to clients' homes, encountering racism, when one patient almost refuses her treatment because he doesn't want an Arab nurse. Selima gets a much better reception at the home of Esther, a wheelchair-bound Jewish woman who, like Selima, comes from Algeria. They get along well and Selima's parents, who are initially skeptical about how a Jewish client will treat their daughter, eventually recognize that the relationship is working.

The relationship that doesn't work is with Esther and her other caregiver, who ends up leaving. Selima can't provide Esther with any more hours, so she asks her mother, Halima, to keep Esther company and make Esther's meals. While some adjustment of attitudes must take place and the women must learn more about each other's respective cultures, they connect. When Esther's son has to go on an extended work trip, Esther moves in with Halima and her husband, Ali. The Muslim neighborhood is not shy about expressing how they feel about Halima working for a Jew and letting a Jew live in her home. But Halima stands her ground and she and Ali become quite attached to Esther and Esther to them; even many of the neighbors come around. It's an optimistic film without being overly sentimental.

Less optimistic, but extremely interesting is the documentary Sharon. It starts off as if it will be a pure condemnation of Ariel Sharon and his 2005 order that led, in the film's words, to "the uprooting of 17 settlements in Gaza and four in northern Samaria." Several months after that order, Sharon fell into a coma from which he has yet to awake, which is likely why the film also states that, "Sharon's reasoning for the disengagement remains unknown."

Yet, despite this statement, the documentary actually does reveal some of the reasons for why Sharon made that highly controversial order – one that, on the surface at least, contradicted Sharon's whole life to that point. But director Dror Moreh accompanied Sharon for several years, documenting some very personal thoughts and moments, and Moreh interviews several of Sharon's friends, political peers, colleagues, academics and others, to compile an insightful portrait of the former prime minister. Moreh delves into Sharon's childhood, his army service, his treatment after the Sabra and Shatilla massacres, his relationship with his wife and his improbable rise not only to become the leader of Israel, but a virtual hero of the United Nations.

All of the VJFF Mini-Fest movies are at the Ridge Theatre, 3131 Arbutus St. For the entire schedule, ticket prices and other information, call 604-266-0245 or visit www.vjff.org.

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