THE GIRAFFE (German/Swiss, In English and German with subtitles)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: An anti-Semitic incident in Germany sparks a murder and starts events connected with a 50-year old mystery involving the Holocaust and two people claiming to be the same person. This is a well-crafted thriller. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4) Minor spoilers in this review.
- Dani Levi directed. He and Maria Schrader co-wrote, and star. - Two women unknowingly share the same identity. When the factory of a wealthy Jew in Germany is torched by anti-Semites, and it appears in a New York newspaper, an American Holocaust survivor recognizes the victim as her own father whom she had assumed was killed by the Nazis. She tries to contact her father only to find out that there is a woman in Germany who has lived in her father's household since the war also claiming to be the same daughter. Two elderly women are each sure they are the same person. When the New Yorker is mysteriously murdered, her son decides to investigate the mystery on his own. - Action takes place in New York and in Germany. - Daughter of the German woman and the son of the American woman form an uneasy alliance to try to find out what has happened, against the recommendation of a Jewish Defense League lawyer played by Davis Strathairn. - Some of early action is intentionally mysterious to be intriguing. - View of New York Orthodox (but not Hassidic) community. Includes such stereotypic roles as the matchmaker. - A complex plot told in a crisp style. - Director has a real ethnic mix of characters in New York.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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