Rebecca - Eine Frau auf der Suche nach sich selbst

I enjoyed this film overall the story appealed to me personally since I'm adopted out as well but I had a lot of problems with the production and casting. Mercedes Ruehl is a fine actress but no way does she look Navaho. All the Navaho's I know are big round people at best Mercedes could past as some northern tribe Sioux or Chickasaw but never Navaho and certainly not from full-bloods, (is there not enough native actresses out there for this role) I thought the actress who played her eldest daughter was very good. She definitely had one of the funnies lines of the movie something like 'yes but the white half has to get more sleep' sorry you have to see it to understand, I though she acted very well and delivered the line well too but again she was about as much skin (meaning native) as she was black. So the movie suffered for me because I couldn't believe that they were any part Dine'.

Excellent film. Mercedes Ruehl gave an excellent performance as Rebecca. One of the outstanding features of this film is the demonstration that people can succeed in spite of childhood rejection. Scenery was gorgeous. I have viewed this film several times and each time I am inspired by its content, quality, and Rebecca's persistence in finding her natural family. I plan to read the book.

This movie, which is based on a true story, has a lot going for it, but in some ways it moved too slowly, and I watched it in three sittings. Rebecca was adopted as a young child by a Jewish couple. Her mother adores her, but becomes ill and dies when she is a teenager. After that, her father gets aloof and marries a woman who obviously doesn't want Rebecca around.

Thus, off she goes to boarding school, and then later joins the Navy. (In real life, the real "Rebecca" also went to Israel, became a soldier, and was wounded in a war!) She then marries a builder, has two daughters and a happy family life. After the girls are born, she searches for her real family, and finds no information, yet then searches again years later.

That second search has her discovering she was a Navajo child, with a twin brother, who was illegally taken away from her real parents when they were born sickly and taken to a "white" hospital. Rebecca goes to visit her biological family, taking the girls with her. That family firmly embraces her and makes her feel like she belongs not only to them, but also to their Navajo tribe.

Rebecca then gets her husband to come out to Arizona and see if they can live there as a family. While she is swooned by it all, her husband and 13-year-old eldest daughter have some major problems on the reservation. This is where the story seemed to be moving too slowly. Yet there are some wonderful scenes, especially those involving Rebecca's biological father.

Her father Yazzi is very wise and gives very wise advice to all. Moreover, he truly encircles her with real fatherly love, so unlike her adoptive father. Her Navajo mother has sadly died, so she never meets her, but her aunt tells her many stories about her mother that make her vividly alive in Rebecca's mind. Will she and her family stay on the reservation? Or will they decide it's not the type of life they can live forever?

I sat down with a little scepticism for this movie. The description of the movie on the television guide did not sound that appealing. However, after a slow start in the first 20 or so minutes I really got into it.

The movie is about this woman who was adopted as a child, and then as a married adult with kids of her own, decides to start looking for her birth family. She finds them in a native American reservation!

As I have friends in the US who are native American and I have been told many stories about their traditions I was very impressed with how they conveyed that culture on the screen.

You may also recognise the grandmother. She was in Dr Quinn Medicine Woman as Cloud Dancing's wife.

I highly recommend this movie!

I was not only touched by Rebecca's situation in "The Lost Child" because it was well-presented (the story), I was touched because I never knew my father until 6 years after he died, and have known none of that side of my family. However, in 1966, I lived in Nazlini, AZ on the Navajo Reservation as a VISTA Volunteer, and my "adopted" family there has remained close all these years. I feel more at home there, even after all these years, than anywhere else.

Someone commented that it was sloppily made. OK, it wasn't where it should be, it didn't have the "right actors"...but the STORY IS TRUE and the actors were so moving that I wept many times in this movie and I can't put it down in any way. Thank you for presenting it.