Lea i Darija

Sometimes true stories are better than fiction. This is one of those stories. It's about a Jewish girl living with her family in Yugoslavia (Croatia) in the late 1930's and at the beginning of World War II. Lea was a very talented child actress, the Shirley Temple of Croatia, who was celebrated by all that saw her perform. Her family and her were victims of the Naz's as depicted very well in the movie. The acting, which included dance scenes, was excellent.

I have just seen Lea and Darjia at the opening of the 58th Pula Film Festival. As a person who grew up in Israel I have seen numerous movies that deal with various aspects of the Jews in Europe before and during WW-II. This movie, unlike others, does not awake any defense mechanism by showing horrifying scenes from concentration camps and in this lies its power. The mixture of the strong message with music and children leaves the viewer "unprotected" till the last moment only to remain with a very strong feeling at the end of the movie. A strong feature of the movie is the parallel development and maturation of both children and adults. This often awakes in the viewer feeling of parental pride and honest surprise. I found the performance of the actors excellent and very convincing. The movie was interesting from the beginning to the end without unnecessary scenes that may have prolonged it too much. To summarize, this movie brigs honor to the touching story it tells. I therefore highly recommend it to anyone regardless of their interest and knowledge in history of the Jews in Europe.

First a few facts: this film was based on a true story so the director had a rather demanding task to balance between the facts and fiction in a way that wouldn't lead to clichés and stereotypes. In my opinion, he did the job quite successfully. The film is definitely not a master piece, but it's interesting enough. It brings a rather strong message about the Holocaust without the horrifying images that we're generally used to seeing in similar films and documentaries. Primarily, this is a film about the invincibility of a human spirit! The viewers can sense this through the eyes and voice of Lea Deutsch, an extremely popular Jewish kid actress in the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb, whose great misfortune was that her career started to flourish shortly before the outbreak of the World War Two.

Some Croatian critics made remarks that the director simplified the broader political context of the time, but I believe it's irrelevant for the story. This wasn't meant to be a documentary, and furthermore - people in Croatia are mostly familiar with this dark episode of their history, while others can simply google it if they need more information.

However, the film itself contains some good and some weak points. The good points are the scenery that looks slightly artistic, there are a few unexpected reversals, the plot even touches the fate of gay people in the Nazi regime and the action is generally fast-moving. I didn't like all the actors, but three of them were really persuasive in their roles: young Klara Naka who plays Lea Deutsch, Sebastian Cavazza and Zrinka Cvitešić who have strongly portrayed Lea's parents without being pathetic. Vedran Živolić was also great as Tadija. Some other actors were slightly irritating, on the other hand. In my opinion, the weakest point is the Innsbruck part, with old Darija hearing Lea's voice in her head. Personally, I would have left it out.

Overall, I felt like the film was missing the secret ingredient for stronger emotions and compassion, but as I had said previously, this would probably lead to stereotypes, which the director clearly wanted to avoid.

As a person fond of history and WW2 in particular, I was very eager to see this very interesting story brought to screen. However, I felt the film didn't turn out as great as it could have. I thought the voice overs were overused and there was a reluctance to give bigger flaws to any of the characters so in the end everyone in this dark era looked like they are, at least deep down, decent people. The time before the war seems idealized and when the war comes, it's as if no one supports the new system in the country, which doesn't ring true. While I felt there was potential to make a better final product, I compliment the filmmakers for selecting an interesting story that is worth telling, which is more than I can say for many others.