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A Hamtramck-based production compan y
makes a film about the Holocaust.
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ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSISTANT EDITOR
tocrat, she witnesses her
family murdered by the
Nazis. She escapes to the
cellar in her country home.
When the chateau is bom-
barded, debris blocks the
cellar door and makes
leaving impossible.
At times,
crew members
were so emotional
they couldn't
continue filming.
Janine Menlove
and Charles Cirgenski
he record scratches slight-
ly, the way old recordings
do, and the voice bears
that naive melancholy,
that unmistakable, sad
charm of long ago. "Rose
Marie," the man sings.
"Rose Marie."
The song plays on a
Gramophone in an imagi-
nary cellar of a French
one-room castle...in
Hamtramck.
The cellar is filled with
treasures dear to a woman
named Ruth: the record of
"Rose Marie," photos of
Ruth's murdered husband
and children, a bird's nest.
There's also a rust-covered
white bed, jars of canned
fruit and mushrooms, a
handmade menorah and a
small Siddur.
The cellar is a set for a
movie, One Room Castle,
which just completed film-
ing in Hamtramck.
Produced by Zone V
Productions Ltd., the fea-
ture film tells the story of
a Jewish woman who
spends the war years in
the lonely cellar of her
chateau.
One Room Castle was
written by Charles
Cirgenski and co-produced
by Mr. Cirgenski and
Janine Menlove, who both
live in Hamtramck atop
their elegant, high-ceil-
inged studio that once was
a florist shop. Neither is
Jewish; both are haunted
by the Holocaust.
"I felt a real need to tell
a story a new way about
the plight of the Jews in
Nazi Germany," Mr.
Cirgenski said.
"We wanted to be very
careful, never to offend
anyone or to be seen as
trivializing (because the
piece is fiction) or in any
way belittling," Ms.
Menlove added. "People
today need to hear about
this."
The film is set in France
and focuses on a woman
named Ruth Erd. The
mother of two and an aris-
At first, Ruth can do no
more than wail. Then she
is angry. Then she begins
to build a life for herself.
She discovers food and
water. She keeps a diary.
But as days and then
months pass, Ruth's
despair grows. She decides
to kill herself. But before
she can complete her deed,
she sees a pigeon. She
catches the bird and eats
it. Moments later, she
hears the sound of a baby
bird; Ruth realizes she has
just eaten its mother.
Ruth begins to care for
the bird, and in doing so
finds the will to live. As
the film draws to a close,
she watches out her win-
dow as the French and
American armies come to
liberate her country.
The screenplay was
written by Mr. Cirgenski,
a film maker since he was
11. Originally, he wanted
to make a psychological
drama about a woman who
is trapped. Then he
chanced to read an article
about Holocaust survivors
and decided to focus on
World War IL He wanted
a story of a woman's evolu-
tion, too, and a film that
offered a strong statement
for Zionism.
Though since childhood
he had been reading about
the war, Mr. Cirgenski
immersed himself in
researching the Holocaust
before he ever began to;
write. He read books and
watched films of survivors'
testimonies. Often, he and
Ms. Menlove visited the
Holocaust Memorial
Center in West Bloomfield. ,
After placing ads in
Hollywood Reporter and
Variety, they received
more than 1,000 resumes
from actresses all eager to
play Ruth. Their choice
was a Canadian actress
named Erin Noble. "You,
could see right away that
spark," Mr. Cirgenski
says. "You could see she
had what we needed."
Filming on One Room
Castle actually began two
years ago, when scenes
were shot in France. The
vast majority of the movie,
however, was made in
Hamtramck, in the castle's
"cellar," during the past
two weeks. The crew
worked 14 hours a day and \
produced more than eight
hours of film.
Ms. Menlove, also direc-
tor of photography, was in
charge of everything from
making the rain outside ,
Ruth's small window to
helping secure the appro-
priate props. Only authen-
tic items were used,
including a French version
of Wuthering Heights,
French cigarettes from
1939, and actual Nazi uni-
forms, borrowed from col-
lectors.
Even the fruit Ruth dis-
covers is real — canned by
Ms. Menlove's mother, as
are the photographs, all
Ruth has of her murdered
family. The producers
made antique-looking pic-
tures of the actors who