Winter Journey

Description: A few years ago Martin Goldsmith, who grew up in Arizona, wrote a book about his parents, musicians who fled Nazi Germany. This film has Martin, in voiceover but never seen, conversing with his father, a retired furniture salesman. The father, played by veteran German actor Bruno Ganz, here in his final performance, is driving around Tuscon, tending his garden and enjoying retirement while responding to his son’s questions. Before emigrating from Germany, the elder Goldsmith and his wife performed in a Nazi-created Jüdischer Kulturbund, or Jewish Cultural Federation’, the only option available to Jewish artists at the time. Flashback monochrome re-enactments using manipulated period stills and archival footage are used for this period. Actors’ voices are added to the footage to make points in the story. An actor playing the father when he was in Germany is seen moving through old still images.

Merits: The story of the Jüdischer Kulturbund is a fascinating one. I am less convinced by the techniques chosen to tell it. Goldsmith’s disembodied voice feels odd. Manipulated reality in a documentary is a technique that requires great care and a light touch to work well. Here, the obvious artifice left me uneasy.

Rating: Suitable for all audiences.

Refugee Lullaby

Letters