Synopsis
The actress-director filmed her family for seven years. "When I started filming my family, I wanted to collect images of my own world, which seemed to be slipping through my fingers. A small Jewish world, disappearing." Between Belgium and the United States, in Yiddish, English or French, she gathers the words of a family that bears the terrible weight of history on a daily basis.
A word from Tënk
Actress and director Hélène Lapiower invites us into her family debates on the thorny question of Jewish identity. As the film slowly reveals divides between generations and personalities within the family, its comedy comes through in its cuts to interviews that show the family’s contradictions and contrasts and the ways the camera creeps into its subjects’ intimate moments—like the cousin interviewed while he shaves. We also laugh with recognition at similarities to our own uncles, aunts and cousins. This documentary reminds us what all families have in common: a tie that can create tension but also binds for a lifetime.
Christine Chevarie
Filmmaker
