Finding the Path of the Jewish heroes in the Film

Abstract

This article analyzes the journey of the three Jewish heroes in the film directed by Liev Schreiber. It should be borne in mind that this film, which depicts the Holocaust and the life of Jewish exiles by a Jewish director, represents an inevitable connection and politics that cannot be separated from the director's life and worldview in any form of production process, story, and theme. In the beginning, the main protagonist of this film seems to be Jonathan, an American who visited Ukraine, but as the story develops, the person portrayed as important as, or even more important than, Jonathan is Alexander's grandfather. The memories and traditions of the two families, which transcend borders and last three generations, combined with the film's cyclical structure, show that it is impossible to disappear and be forgotten, and that they repeat forever, penetrating the past, present, and future. The film shows the life of an independent Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens like a landscape, and indirectly presents the oppression and massacre of Jews by Ukrainian nationalists and the Soviet government hidden behind the Nazi Holocaust. Although this film about the massacre of Jews in Ukraine in the 1940s was made in the 2000s, it is being recalled these days during the Russo-Ukrainian War. This can be said to show the historical common idea that the historical events of that time are still ongoing.