Beginning with Jewish Survival: Freud’s Leaving Home

Abstract

“Beginning with Jewish Survival: Freud’s Leaving Home” is a close reading of the complex references to Jewish heritage in Bier’s first feature-length film. Maureen Turim employs a psychological lens to assess the film’s distinct blend of comedy and tragedy, most particularly in its evocations of Freud’s delayed maturation, Rosha’s impending death, and their intense, ambivalent mother-daughter bond. The chapter further situates Freud’s Leaving Home in the context of contemporaneous films by Jewish directors that represent diasporic Jewish families in cultural transition.