Mendel
Russian title: Мендель
Original title: Mendel
Original title: Mendel
Family drama – Denmark, Germany, Norway
Production year: 1996
Movie length: 95 minutes
Production year: 1996
Movie length: 95 minutes
Director: Alexander Røsler
Writer: Alexander Røsler
Cinematograph: Helge Semb
Music: Geir Bøhren, Bent Åserud
Writer: Alexander Røsler
Cinematograph: Helge Semb
Music: Geir Bøhren, Bent Åserud
Movie description:
Nine-year-old Mendel is a Jewish boy who emigrates to Norway with his family in the 1950s. His parents tell him that no Jew can live in Germany after all that has happened. But nobody will tell him just what it was that happened. Mendel comes to his own conclusions from snippets of con-versation and vague innuendo. He is plagued by nightmares, just like his father, and in the day-time he imagines himself as a freedom fighter that would have made short shrift of the Nazis. His question »What did you do in the war, Daddy?« turns into the accusation »Why didn’t you defend yourself, Daddy?« Unlike his parents, Mendel is determined never to give up without a fight. He bolsters his pride by waging a feud against an outsider in the village who the children imagine being a monster and who, in Mendel’s eyes, is the very incarnation of an anti-Semite. But Mendel is in for a surprise...
Mendel is the bitter-sweet story of a nine year old boy who comes to Norway along with other Jewish refugees in the 1950s; – a time when refugees were as rare in Norway as garlic. Mendel is surprised by the lack of polar bears in the streets, over cod liver oil and fish balls and the missionary zeal of the well-meaning citizens. While the refugees complain about Norwegian peculiarities, Mendel discovers that life among the Jews is not without problems either, since they all have firm opinions about which Jewishness is the right one. The war is still a daily and nightly reality for Mendel’s family. They never speak about the war directly to the children, but at the same time they talk about it constantly among themselves; as if children are deaf when they are not spoken to directly. To preserve his pride, Mendel must fight his own war. He must convince himself that »The Mitten Man«, an outsider, enlarged in the children’s frightened imagination is the reincarnation of anti-Semitism. At the moment of truth, Mendel gets a surprise and new insight into why things happen to people who are different.
Mendel is the bitter-sweet story of a nine year old boy who comes to Norway along with other Jewish refugees in the 1950s; – a time when refugees were as rare in Norway as garlic. Mendel is surprised by the lack of polar bears in the streets, over cod liver oil and fish balls and the missionary zeal of the well-meaning citizens. While the refugees complain about Norwegian peculiarities, Mendel discovers that life among the Jews is not without problems either, since they all have firm opinions about which Jewishness is the right one. The war is still a daily and nightly reality for Mendel’s family. They never speak about the war directly to the children, but at the same time they talk about it constantly among themselves; as if children are deaf when they are not spoken to directly. To preserve his pride, Mendel must fight his own war. He must convince himself that »The Mitten Man«, an outsider, enlarged in the children’s frightened imagination is the reincarnation of anti-Semitism. At the moment of truth, Mendel gets a surprise and new insight into why things happen to people who are different.
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