Menachem and Fred

Meet Menachem and Fred, an Israeli professor and an American space engineer, brothers who are now reuniting as adults. When they separated during the Holocaust, Fred moved to New York, changed his full name and raised all-American Christians; Menachem is a religious Jew and lives near his children and their West Bank settlement.

The men avoided their history for over sixty years until letters from their mother surfaced and forced them to confront the past. We travel with them to Germany on an emotional tour of the many homes and refuges they had, including their original family home, a hiding place when they were driven out on Kristallnacht, an orphanage and a camp. Both Menachem and Fred have blocked out parts of their youth so that we, as viewers, have the odd feeling that we are learning about their childhoods at the same time as they are, from old neighbors and from each other. The most difficult meeting is with the Hopps family, son and daughter of the Nazi who forced the brothers and their parents from their home. The Hoppses play a pivotal and somewhat controversial part in the reunion in Germany of Menachem and Freds families. This stranger-than-fiction tale is told beautifully, both visually and through Freds and the filmmakers lyrical narration, inviting viewers to join in questioning the meaning of home, identity and fate.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Menachem and Fred
• 29th SFJFF
• SFJFF 2009
• YBCA
• JCC East Bay
• Yerba Buena
• Holocaust
• Jewish film
• documentary