By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Fifteen years after their liberation from Auschwitz, three female survivors have found each other and decide to celebrate their reunion at the French beach resort of Berck-sur-mer, in To Life, a film by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann.
Although the women want to simply enjoy the moments, their repressed memories from the Holocaust keep bubbling up, notwithstanding the efforts of Rose (Suzanne Clement) to forbid any discussion of the camps.
We learn of the guilt that weighs down both Rose and Lili (Johanna ter Steege) for actions they took to ensure their survivals, and we witness the sexual awakening of Helene (Julie Depardieu), whose stay-at-home husband ( Hippolyte Girardot) had been sexually incapacitated by one of the infamous medical experiments inflicted on prisoners by Nazi “doctors.”
Although the surfacing of these memories is a strong component of the film, the growth of the friendship among these three women – the tender moments, the understanding, the Yiddish songs, the carefully prepared Sabbath dinner, the bonding – makes To Life all the more remarkable.
Also filling important roles in this movie are Mathias Mekuz who plays an old boyfriend whom Helene knew before she was deported by the Nazis and Benjamin Wangermée, a young lifeguard whose amorous interest in the married-yet-still-virgin Helene becomes immediately obvious.
To Life will begin playing in metropolitan theaters in various parts of the United States the week of May 6.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below must be accompanied by the letter-writer’s first and last name and by his/her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the U.S.)