Arts Entertainment
Jewish Film Festival
`The Last Letter'
t the heart of Frederick Wiseman's documen-
taries, there has always been the struggle
between the individual and institutional
power. How do we reconcile personal freedom and a
mass society in democracy?
Whether it is a welfare mother trying to get bene-
fits or a dancer defining his place in the corps de
ballet, an alleged perp facing a copy or a high school
student locked in confrontation with his principal,
Wiseman has brilliantly revealed American institu-
tions in all their bureaucratic ordinariness.
Wiseman's new film, The Last Letter, this year's
inaugural winner of the Harold and Sarah Gottlieb
Prize for Contributions to Jewish Culture, would
appear to represent a major departure from his
deservedly renowned documentary work.
• His first fiction film, it is only his second work to
address issues of Jewish concern (after his 1978 Sinai
Field Mission) and one of his rare films to take place
outside the United States. It will be screened 3 p.m.
Sunday, May 4, in Commerce Township, where
Wiseman will appear to receive his prize and discuss
his film. It also will be shown 5 p.m. Monday, May
5, in Ann Arbor, where Wiseman also will appear.
(Wiseman's recent documentary, Domestic Violence
(2002), filmed at a shelter for battered women in
Tampa. Fla., will screen locally 7:30 p.m. Monday,
April 21, at the Detroit Film Theatre at the DIA.
The documentary and its sequel, Domestic Violence
II, aired last month to rave reviews on PBS.)
The Last Letter is as eloquent a consideration of
Wiseman's usual themes as any of his best nonfiction
films, an understated but powerful rumination on
A
`The Serial Society'
ikely to be one of the most talked-about films
at this year's festival,. The Burial Society is a
quirky, comic thriller that twists and turns
(perhaps one time too many). It screens post-
Shabbat 9:45 p.m. Saturday, May 3, in Commerce
Township and 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1, in Windsor.
The Canadian-produced film follows the darkly
captivating story of Sheldon Kasner (Rob LaBelle),
a nebbishy loan manager at Hebrew National Bank,
who is on the run from Purple-Gang-like mob
bosses who believe he has extorted millions of dol-
lars from them.
Near the start of the film, Sheldon appears at a
synagogue in a small Canadian town. He wants to
join the Chevrah Kadishah, or burial society, a
group. of wizened, clubby elders who perform the
traditional rites of preparing bodies for burial.
Although initially rejected by the trio of men
(wonderful performances by Jan Rubes, Allan Rich
and Bill Meilen), Sheldon eventually convinces the
society he is a worthy recruit, and he becomes their
new apprentice.
He begins to participate in the ritual cleaning and
dressing of the corpses, learning the ancient cus-
toms. The irony is obvious, yet satisfying: Sheldon
makes his new start in life by studying death.
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Catherine Samie in "The Last Letter"
the survival of the individual spirit pitted against the
massive machinery of the state.
- But this time the machinery of the state is vastly
more sinister, brutal and pervasive than the bean
counters in Hospital.
The force of evil — which is what he is contend-
ing with in the new film — is the Nazi army of
It's a fascinating plot development that puts view-
ers in a position to experience things most people,
even Jews, know little about. From the prayers over
the body to the all-night casket vigil kept by the
chevrah, it's an intimate and unlikely topic for any
movie, much less a caper flick.
After Sheldon settles into his new role, the story
unravels in unexpected, nonlinear ways.
As we learn more about the life Sheldon has appar-
ently left behind, we begin to question his motives
until finally, we are brought to the film's shocking and
perplexing Edgar Allan Poe-ish conclusions.
The movie's final scenes force us to re-evaluate
our assumptions about certain plot points.
Unfortunately, the ending is nowhere as smart and
well thought out as other films that employ similar
maneuvers (The Usual Suspects or The Sixth Sense,
for instance).
Yes, it's frustrating. Still, it's worth the watching.
The film slowly and deliciously savors the con-
nections between Judaic ritual, mysticism, death,
philosophy and spirituality. At the same time, it
generates some good laughs and some surprisingly
macabre moments.
Although one might be left feeling as if there was
a crucial scene missing, the film is otherwise so
engagingly idiosyncratic and thoroughly entertain-
ing that it's hard to resist.
— Audrey Becker
occupation in Berdichev, Ukraine.
The Last Letter is a monodrama, a one-woman
performance by the senior stateswoman of the
Comedie Francaise, Catherine Samie, who plays Dr.
Anna Semionovna, a Jew caught up in the occupa-
tion and ghetto-ization of her hometown.
In this, her final letter before a mass execution the
next day, she tells her son of her fate and of the
destruction of the Jews of Ukraine.
Drawn from a chapter of Vasily Grossman's mas-
terful novel Life and Fate, the text is mordant, bitter
and powerful. As enacted by Samie, the result would
be riveting theater.
What is truly remarkable is that Wiseman,
eschewing any set but a blank wall, any imagery
other than the physical presence of his actress and a
series of shadows artfully arranged, has created a
startlingly original piece of filmmaking that stands
alongside his greatest achievement in nonfiction
film.
The key to the film, only 61 minutes long, resides
in those shadows. Shot in sumptuous black-and-
white by Yorgos Arvanitis, the film's aura emanates
from the shadows that frequently stand in for Anna.
At times they seem to multiply, an army of ghostly
figures accusing the listeners of forgetting what was
done to the Jews of Europe; at other times, a single
looming presence is cast across a slash of light, a
stark prevision of the deaths to come.
For the rest, there is Samie's extraordinarily expres-
sive face and voice, a palette and landscape any film-
maker would love to have at his disposal.
It is hard to believe that we will see a better piece of
acting (or a more demanding one) in a film this year.
— George Robinson
"The Burial Society": Surprise twists.