À la recherche du passé

"Left Luggage" is an interesting effort to deal with children of Holocaust survivors, not a common subject in films.

The child here is a vibrant, secular college student in 1970's Antwerp dealing with her haunted parents and her new employers, a Hassidic family.

It's an international co-production--Isabella Rossellini is actually creditable as the Hassidic mother and Maximillan Schell who has had a huge career playing Nazis is quite good as the unreligious Jewish father. It pushes too many, way too many schmaltzy buttons (yeah yeah, I cried about the adorable sort-of developmentally disabled kid that the young woman is the nanny for, but come on, and comparing reactions to the Nazis to standing up to a crazy, anti-Semitic elevator operator is a bit much).

The changes that the woman goes through relate mostly to her dealings with her parents and they with her, though the changes she puts the Hassidic family through are more moving.

There's an indication of an impact on her own sense of Jewish identity when she finally declares herself Jewish to her gentile best friend and some impact on her romantic life when she kicks her leechy Marxist blond, blue-eyed boyfriend out of her bed, but that's more to do with her independent streak.

(originally written 10/22/2000)