Country: Italy, Czech Republic
Year: 2013
Duration: 60'
Rabbi Benjamin Murmelstein (1905-1989) was head of the Jewish Council of the artificial ghetto of Terezín (Theresienstadt in German). The Nazis made him representative of the community destined for extermination. Victim of a tragic contradiction, after the Liberation he was tried and absolved from the accusation of collaborating with the Nazis; he moved to Rome, where he was ostracized by the Jewish community until he died. His son Wolf devoted his life to redeem his image, trying to paint a more complex picture of the role his father played in Terezín. The film reconstructs through the conversation between Wolf and the psychoanalyst David Meghnagi a son’s relationship with the memory of his father, between the acceptance, the denial, and the thematization of a common and familiar tragedy.
Biography
film director
Claudio Giovannesi
Claudio Giovannesi (Rome, Italy, 1978) is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and musician. After getting a Bachelor of Arts, he received a diploma from the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome. He worked for Rai3’s program Blob from 2001 to 2004. In 2009 he directed the feature film La casa sulle nuvole (Jury Special Award at the Brussels Film Festival) and the documentary Fratelli d’Italia, special mention of the jury at the Rome Film Festival). In 2012 he directed his second feature film Ali Has Blue Eyes, winning the special jury prize and the best debut and second film award in Rome, FICE Award and Mario Verdone Award. The film was also nominated at the Nasti d’argento and partecipated in competition at Tribeca Film Festival.
FILMOGRAFIA
L’uomo del sottosuolo (cm, 2005), Fratelli d’Italia (doc., 2009), La casa sulle nuvole (2009), Alì ha gli occhi azzurri (2012), Wolf (doc., 2013).
Declaration
film director
“I tried to ask myself questions beyond Judaism and the Shoah, trying to let the film itself ask the questions: is it possible to live beyond one’s past? Can a human being survive the memory and the faults of his father? How does History act and transform individual lives? Where does the past end and where does the present begin?”
Cast
& Credits
REGIA
Claudio Giovannesi
SOGGETTO
David Meghnagi
SCENEGGIATURA
David Meghnagi, Claudio Giovannesi
FOTOGRAFIA
Michele D’Attanasio
MONTAGGIO
Giuseppe Trepiccione
MUSICA
Claudio Giovannesi, Andrea Moscianese
SUONO
Angelo Bonanni, Filip Slavik
INTERPRETI
Wolf Murmelstein, David Meghnagi, Anna Murmelstein, Riccardo Di Segni, Marketa Pacovska, Toman Brod
PRODUZIONE
Vivo Film, Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Produkce Radim Prochàzka
DISTRIBUZIONE
Istituto Luce Cinecittà
Claudio Giovannesi
SOGGETTO
David Meghnagi
SCENEGGIATURA
David Meghnagi, Claudio Giovannesi
FOTOGRAFIA
Michele D’Attanasio
MONTAGGIO
Giuseppe Trepiccione
MUSICA
Claudio Giovannesi, Andrea Moscianese
SUONO
Angelo Bonanni, Filip Slavik
INTERPRETI
Wolf Murmelstein, David Meghnagi, Anna Murmelstein, Riccardo Di Segni, Marketa Pacovska, Toman Brod
PRODUZIONE
Vivo Film, Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Produkce Radim Prochàzka
DISTRIBUZIONE
Istituto Luce Cinecittà
TFF
prizes
