IVAN AND ABRAHAM
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1994 James Berardinelli
Rating (0 to 10): 7.7
Date Released: varies (7/94) Running Length: 1:45 Rated: No MPAA Rating (Mature themes, nudity)
Starring: Roma Alexandrovitch, Sacha Iakovlev, Vladimir Machkov, Maria Lipkina Director: Yolande Zauberman Producers: Rene Cleitman and Jean-Luc Ormieres Screenplay: Yolande Zauberman Cinematography: Jean-Marc Fabre Music: Ghedalia Tazartes Released by New Yorker Films In Yiddish, Polish, Russian, and Gypsy dialect with subtitles
The power of IVAN AND ABRAHAM lies as much in what doesn't reach the screen as what does. Taking place in the years leading up to Hitler's invasion of Poland, the feature debut of Franco-Polish filmmaker Yolande Zauberman is the tale of four outcasts and the intolerance that forces them away from home, then forever prevents them from returning.
None of the Nazi brutality so evident in another black-and-white Holocaust picture, SCHINDLER'S LIST, is shown here, since IVAN AND ABRAHAM ends before Poland is occupied. What is unflinchingly portrayed is the climate of anti-Semitism that turns a Polish community into a tinderbox.
Those of us sitting in the audience know historically what is to come, and this recognition adds a further level of poignancy to the proceedings. No matter how things turn out in the short run, darker, more ominous stormclouds are building. Though that is not IVAN AND ABRAHAM's story to tell, the sense of impending doom pervades everything. Zauberman is as cognizant of the future as are those watching her film.
IVAN AND ABRAHAM opens in a Polish shtetl, a small Jewish community near the country's eastern border. It is the eve of war, and the landowner has packed up and departed, ruining all the peasants who worked for him--both Jewish and Catholic. Abraham (Roma Alexandrovitch) is a nine-year old Jew whose best friend is Ivan (Sacha Iakovlev), a fourteen-year old Catholic. When the Christians decide that the Jews are the source of their misery, Abraham's grandfather (the old landowner's estate manager and the most likely target of violence) decides to flee the shtetl and take the boy with him. Not wanting to be stuck away from home with such a strict disciplinarian, Abraham runs away, accompanied only by Ivan.
Meanwhile, Abraham's sister Rachel (Maria Lipkina) has begun an affair with a communist named Aaron (Vladimir Machkov). When her father disowns her as a result of this liaison, she and Aaron choose to leave the country. But first, they go after Abraham and Ivan to bring the pair home.
At times, were it not for the stark black-and-white photography, it might almost be possible to imagine that Abraham and Ivan are involved in a simple road movie--meeting people and going places as they stay one step ahead of those who would end their adventure. These moments do not last for long, however, with the ugly specter of racism always ready to rear its head. When Abraham pretends to be a gypsy to avoid anti- Semitism, he finds that the only people hated worse than Jews are gypsies.
To show that intolerance is not just a characteristic of the Catholics, Zauberman has introduced the subplot detailing Rachel's attachment to Aaron. His communist beliefs make him an outlaw in the community, and when Rachel professes to love him and refuses an arranged marriage, she is summarily cut off from her family. Her father proclaims her to be dead.
The narrative of IVAN AND ABRAHAM is choppy, occasionally to the point of being difficult to decipher. Several incidental characters come and go a little too quickly, with their exact influence over the runaways left unclear. For a beautifully photographed film, the editing is surprisingly crude. Too often, it's easy to place a missing scene.
Technical and flow problems aside, IVAN AND ABRAHAM is still a moving film, and a worthy "prequel" of sorts to the more sobering and gut-wrenching SCHINDLER'S LIST. This is just another face of a horror so enormous that no number of motion pictures will ever begin to grasp its scope.
- James Berardinelli (blake7@cc.bellcore.com)
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