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The Show you been waiting for...
ding revelation on the set of
Immortal Beloved about five years ago.
"I have decided to-direct," pro-
nounced the actor, who has appeared
in The Fugitive, Kafka and Ever After.
The impetus was a book that
changed his life.
"Jeroen's mother had a tattoo on
her arm, but she never spoke of her
experiences in a concentration
camp," Rossellini says. "Jeroen grew
up Protestant, like his father, in
Holland. It was only after reading
this book that he wanted to discover
his Jewish culture."
Left Luggage tells of the daughter of
survivors who learns to understand
her family "baggage" after going to
work for a Chasidic family. Krabbe,
who identified with the protagonist,
wanted Rossellini to play Mrs.
Kalman, the wife of a survivor.
"Everyone knows I'm Catholic, and
I'm Italian, and I'm also a model," she
explains. "Of course, I later learned
that Chasidic women can be very
glamorous. But initially, I just
thought people would think I was
miscast. No matter how well I did the
role, I feared that the sight of me
playing a Chasid would just make
people laugh."
Krabbe, however, was persistent.
Rossellini decided to accept the role
— Kim Roth
and discovered that she innately
understands the concept of Left
Luggage, "how a fami-
ly's past can haunt the
Isabella
present."
Rossellini,
The actress, howev-
left, plays a
er, had never before
Chasidic Jew
portrayed a Jewish
in "Left
character, much less
' an Orthodox one, so
Luggage."
she required four
coaches to help her
with the film.
There was a coach
to teach her Yiddish,
one for Hebrew,
another to teach her
to speak English with a German
accent and yet another to show her
the proper body language.
Rossellini, who lunched with
orget her 28 Vogue magazine covers.
In the most unexpected cast-
Chasidic women at a kosher deli on
ing, Isabella Rossellini — mit sheitel
location in Belgium, says she was
— portrays a Chasidic Jewish woman
surprised to discover that fervently
in Jeroen Krabbe's post-Holocaust
Orthodox women can be stylish.
"One woman used to wear all sorts
saga, Left Luggage.
The film will be shown 8 p.m.
of different wigs," she recalls. "One
Wednesday, May 1, in Birmingham; 8 day she looked like Brigitte Bardot,
p.m. Sunday, May 5, in Commerce
the next like Louise Brooks."
Township; and 8 p.m. Wednesday,
How did the actress find wearing a
May 8, in Ann Arbor.
sheitel? "Itchy," she laughs.
— Naomi Pfefferman
It all began when Rossellini's friend
Krabbe approached her with a star-
and synagogues, give viewers a sense
not just of Behar's story but of the
"living presence of Sephardim in Latin
America" and multiculturalism within
the Jewish community — precisely her
intention.
She talks with Miguelito, a 7-year-
old Afro-Cuban drummer about to
make aliyah to Israel, about his depar-
ture, and to Roberto Levy Cohen,
Cuba's eldest Sephardic Jew, about the
importance of memory.
Stateside, she continues her explo-
ration through conversations with her
brother, a musician in Philadelphia,
and a hairdresser in Miami, among
others.
The film is a story, too, of reconcili-
ation of ideological differences. Like -
many others who emigrated, Behar's
Turkish father won't return to Cuba.
"I go for him," she says. "He acknowl-
edges that I need to go."
Through making Adio Kerida (the
title is borrowed from a Sephardic love
song), Behar has found some of the
answers she sought over the years.
"Everyone offered me a model of
how to mix one's identities together
into something coherent and vibrant,
ways to express these identities
through a connectedness to Jewish tra-
dition and to Cuban culture."
'Left Luggage'
F
OUR SPRING ART EVENT
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