By Miriam S.
- 100 Faces, Benjamin Till
- My Polish Honeymoon (the French film, was actually called ‘My Honeymoon’ but the English translation added ‘Polish’)
On 11 December 2019, a group of Milton Keynes Synagogue (MKDRS) members travelled to Northampton to see two films, 100 Faces and My Polish Honeymoon, which were being screened there as part of the UK National Jewish Film Festival. It was a really lovely evening which included a Q&A session by the director of the first film, Benjamin Till, alongside the Chair of the UK National Jewish Film Festival, Michael Etherton.
The event took place at the Northampton Filmhouse. I really liked the ‘intimate’ (smaller type) cinema. It was a lovely, comfy, clean and really nice environment.
100 Faces, directed by Benjamin Till
(13 minutes long)
Filmed in Black and White, to great effect. In fact, I didn’t actually notice that it wasn’t in colour, for some reason – until my friend sitting next to me mentioned it afterwards, I was a bit taken aback that I hadn’t ‘noticed’ but this meant that it seemed perfectly natural to the genre and worked very well.
There are not many Jewish films that portray Jews who are not victims, so just for that, it was refreshing.
The director had wanted one ordinary Jewish ‘face’ (person) to appear in his docu-musico-film, born in every year over the last 100 years in Britain. Amazingly, he achieved his goal, the last lady being 100, of course! Each
person (beautifully filmed) sang, or spoke a few words of what being Jewish meant to them – of course, food was mentioned a lot! There were one or two famous faces, such as Esther Ranzen, but most were just ordinary members of the public.
I found it to be tender, uplifting, happy, inspiring and made me feel connected and proud to be Jewish!
My Polish Honeymoon (Lune de miel)
(1hr, 28 min long – a French film, with English subtitles, shot in Poland)
A touching film exploring a French (Parisian) Jewish family’s search into their Polish roots. The daughter had wanted to find out more about her grandmother and set out to do so, with her husband (and later joined – to the surprise of all – by her mother).
It was billed as a humorous film, which it was in places. I found it to be ‘very’ French, if you know what I mean: the way they dress, walk, the things they say, the little things that hold great interest for them – other people’s sexual life, details of food – all spoken about with great seriousness (perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t always ‘get’ it!) I do find amusing, though.
Having said that, it was a light and beautifully filmed story, with genuine amusing and believable anecdotes, and real emotion such as when the daughter could not find any trace of her grandmother, and when (after too much vodka) she had a temper tantrum over her rather watery restaurant borscht soup, that was not thick and tasty like her grandmother’s, and she ‘wanted one’ just like that (and regretted not getting her recipe). Deeper down, of course, she wanted her grandmother, and wanted to connect to her roots. I personally resonate with that, as I am currently immersed in family history research, and feel so proud of my ancestors.
I recommend both films.