MFDB

Storyline

This poetic documentary by a young Israeli filmmaker was inspired by Isaak Babel’s Odessa Tales, which describe the colourful life of the Jewish community in this famous port on the Black Sea. Today, the streets in the Moldovanka district are deserted and the houses are in a pitiable state of repair, but these cheerless flats are still occupied by people who remember a bygone era. They leaf through yellowing albums, remembering a family existence marked by war, Bolshevism and Nazism. The old woman Ester and her friend, who is rumoured in the neighbourhood to be a witch, are not afraid to sing and dance in front of the camera. Another friend of Ester, Tanya, has become entangled in Communist ideology. Tanya’s nephew Valery Krivoruchka boasts in his junk-filled flat that he used to be an opera singer, although his living is more dependent now on what he can lay his hands on and later sell. Ester also makes a trip out of the city to show the filmmakers the place where the family used to live, near an orthodox church. All that remains is a neglected Jewish cemetery and a destroyed synagogue. But time seems to have stood still out here in the countryside, while Odessa grows old, like its few remaining Jewish inhabitants....

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2002
Forum