Educational Media Reviews Online

Viewers are forewarned they may find themselves fighting back tears or, as the case may be, find tears flowing copiously on two occasions in this moving film. The first time is at the beginning, when Australian filmmaker Rod Freedman arrives in Vilnius, Lithuania, to meet for the first time his ninety-three-year-old Great Uncle Chatzkel who, isolated in a Nazi-occupied country, then in a Communist one, had no idea he might ever see a living relative again. Chatzkel's and Freedman's unrehearsed embrace - the aged Holocaust survivor, the Aussi with obliterated Eastern European roots - is a heartbreaker. The second time is when we learn that, though Chatzkel alone with his wife survives the Nazi butchers, their two sons ages twelve and seven (we see numerous photographs of two full-of-life youngsters with not a care in the world) are taken away and gassed in an extermination camp... How, then, did Chatzkel, heart broken beyond repair carry on? Freedman's film is not only the story of a miraculous survivor, it's the story of a man whose character, humanity, and achievements single him out as an extraordinary person whatever the circumstances.

Left behind with his parents when his sister, Freedman's grandmother emigrates to South Africa - her family later moves on to Australia - Chatzkel Lemchen becomes the favorite student of the most famous Lithuanian linguist of the time, Jonas Jablonskis. Thus Chatzkel is there to witness the Russian Revolution taking place close by, then to see his own country come under Soviet domination with the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939, then to live through the indiscriminate slaughter of Jews under the Nazi occupation when Germany attacked Russia in 1941. Because of his language skills, Chatzkel is given work by the Nazis cataloging books, work that helps him survive the Holocaust, though as already mentioned his two sons succumb. It's after the war, when Lithuania becomes a Soviet vassal state, that Chatzkel's brilliance manifests itself. Though Jewish, his knowledge of the Lithuanian language is such that he's asked to prepare the First Russian/Lithuanian dictionary. Book after book follows, and Chatzkel achieves considerable renown for his lexicographical accomplishments, winning many awards from the Communist government along the way.

His only immediate family member, his wife Ela Wohlson, dies in 1979. Though he's honored on his ninetieth birthday by the state that freed itself from the Soviets in 1991, Chatzkel's noble age (amazingly, he continues to work) is poignantly lonely - even after the late encounter with his Australian family. Freedman's film is remarkable in its ungimmicky retelling of Chatzkel's story. The man himself emerges as a warm, humble, wonderful genius - everyone's ideal uncle. The film is further notable for rarely seen (in these parts) Lithuanian archival film of the Nazi years - painful to watch, recommended with resentment to Holocaust deniers. This is a beautiful film, an inspiring film, a humane film despite the inhumanity that's an irreducible part of the story it relates.

Highly Recommended