By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Holocaust survivor Abraham Bursztein (Miguel Angel Sola), the protagonist in the Spanish language, English-subtitled film The Last Suit, has a promise to keep before his children in Argentina move him out of his house and pack him off to a retirement home. Angry at their insistence that he leave the home in which he has lived for 50 years, he does not share with them his spur-of-the-moment plans, for he is a proud man, easy to anger, slow to forgive.
The promise was to return a suit to Piotrik, a childhood friend and apprentice tailor who lived in Lodz, Poland. This friend nursed him back to health after the Holocaust. There being no immediate flights to Warsaw, Abraham surreptitiously purchased a ticket for Madrid from which he needed to take a train to Paris, and then change stations for a train ride to Poland. Not an easy task for an elderly man, especially one who has suffered with a gimpy right leg since the Holocaust. Abraham even has a nickname for his leg: Tzures.
What enables Abraham to complete the trip, notwithstanding some serious mishaps, is the dignified way in which he carries himself and the meticulous manner in which he dresses. Men are all but immune to his charm, but a succession of women whom he meets enroute take him under their wings, helping him to achieve his objective. There is Maria (Angela Molina) in Spain; Ingrid in France (Julia Beerhold) and Gosia (Olga Boladz) in Poland. On the plane to Madrid, Leo (Martin Piroyansk), a musician, studiously avoided him, but after Abraham helps him get through passport control, he becomes devoted to him.
If only Abraham’s children felt the same way about the man, who has suffered so much and now is headed back to the city where his nightmare began. As the journey continues, we learn Abraham’s back story, through flashbacks, through hallucinations, and through his recitation of the facts of his life to Ingrid, who is a German anthropologist, eager to atone for the sins of the fathers and grandfathers.
The story is wistful, and at times happy and at other times sad. I was glad that I saw it, and I think most viewers will also be pleased. The Last Suit is scheduled to open Sept. 21 in New York; Sept. 28 in Los Angeles, and on dates thereafter around the United States.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com