Wednesday, June 20, 9:15 p.m. Victoria
WEST COAST PREMIERE
 |
| baby Su Goldfish & parents |
Su Goldfish was born in Trinidad, but her family fled the racial unrest there when she was 13, emigrating to Australia. Shortly after, she began trying to piece together the story of her family, leading her to a series of unforeseen discoveries: her father was a German Jew, originally named Goldfisch, who narrowly escaped in 1938, one of only about 600 Jews who were let into Trinidad — the British closed the border 12 days later. He escaped with his first wife, with whom he had two children, half-siblings Su had never known existed, but then neither did she know her father was Jewish. Over the course of more than 30 years, she makes contact with her brother and sister and several other relatives, and learns much more about her family, their roots in Germany, details of the fate of her relatives, and the lives the survivors built in France, Canada, and the United States.
It’s an intensely personal journey, rooted in her family tree and her own experience as an immigrant, but it spans a wide swath of history across four continents, giving the story a much broader appeal than just “Come look at my family photo album.” The immense life-and-death dramas that weave through the story are uncovered gradually, leaving space for the audience to contemplate such things as the barbarity of Nazi Germany, while also finding hope in the ongoing commitment of present-day Germans to remember those who were so callously put to death. The pace at times feels leisurely, but there’s a lot of material, and connections between the specific and the general. The issue of homosexuality comes up briefly a couple of times, primarily in the context of Su’s parents’ disapproval; most of the story is about the Goldfisch family’s place in the diaspora. Highly recommended.
It’s an intensely personal journey, rooted in her family tree and her own experience as an immigrant, but it spans a wide swath of history across four continents, giving the story a much broader appeal than just “Come look at my family photo album.” The immense life-and-death dramas that weave through the story are uncovered gradually, leaving space for the audience to contemplate such things as the barbarity of Nazi Germany, while also finding hope in the ongoing commitment of present-day Germans to remember those who were so callously put to death. The pace at times feels leisurely, but there’s a lot of material, and connections between the specific and the general. The issue of homosexuality comes up briefly a couple of times, primarily in the context of Su’s parents’ disapproval; most of the story is about the Goldfisch family’s place in the diaspora. Highly recommended.
• IMDb • official website • other official website • Facebook: @TheLastGoldfishFilm • trailer •
No comments:
Post a Comment