Hannas Reise

Heroine makes journey to find herself - This summary is not the whole answer here, though, because the plot turns out to take on an interesting twist when woven in with the delicate issue of German-Israelian/ German-Jewish relationships. The main character's path takes a few expected turns, but also as many unexpected ones, which keeps it interesting to see the plot unfold. What's great about this carefully written piece is that it manages to take a refreshing, humorous approach towards the heavy political issue that hangs over the characters' heads like the sword of Damocles. A couple of pretty hearty jokes aimed at the German side work well in helping to ease the pressure. Outside of these moments, one feels like a quiet observer in an intimate setting, while watching the lively bunch, each person with their own idiosyncrasies and oddities, trying to find the appropriate way of dealing with each other in a situation where there's no protocol for it. All this is a pleasure to watch from a photographic point of view; with lovingly designed settings, carefully chosen framing and an interesting use of colors, the visualization becomes something of a metaphorical reflection of the actions taking place in the foreground. So I would recommend 'Hannah's Reise' to fans of romcoms with a twist as much as to those who enjoy movies with a political note (without being preachy or judgmental).

The movie seems to be a look at the vanishing of first-hand memories of the Holocaust on both the German and the Jewish/Israeli sides. The grandchildren of the Holocaust generation have not been told much, but they do bear scars that they may not know the reason for. Not knowing is not healthy, but the sources of the knowledge are disappearing.

As this picture is painted, Israel is greatly oversimplified. It looks almost as if no Jews ever lived in Israel other than European refugees and their descendants. Few dark-skinned Jews and, by the way, no Arabs- - although the Israeli army is portrayed as a soul-destroying force and presumably there are Arabs somewhere to serve as its victims.

I have no idea how autobiographical the original story is, but the movie involves some mentally handicapped Israelis and in order to make the movie work, these people must, despite their mental handicaps, converse in English, and they must be pretty well disciplined most of the time. No problem leaving them alone while the male and female leads step out for a heart-to-heart conversation; or letting them go into the sea.

The heroine herself is a confused and conflicted character with a very specific back story, but that's a good thing. As Fitzgerald is said to have written, go for the individual and you'll get the type; go for the type and you'll get nothing. Hanna is a good example of the first case and the mentally handicapped Israelis are an example of the other case.

The German film Hannas Reise was shown in the U.S. with the title Hanna's Journey (2013). It was co-written and directed by Julia von Heinz.

Caroline Schuch plays Hanna, a recent college graduate who is at the top of her game. She's beautiful, she's intelligent, and she's certain to get a truly prestigious job. Except . . . the people interviewing her think that she hasn't really seen the world, or done anything in it. Being the savvy person that she is, Hanna tells them that she can't start work until she's spent some time working with people with handicaps in Israel. Definitely a good career move.

Hanna can say that she'll do that because her mother runs an agency that places people into programs like this. Hanna sets off for Israel, where she finds a chaotic living situation. (The agency has a truly horrible housing location in Israel.) However, she gets past that, only to learn that dealing with people with disabilities is difficult, You can't just pick it up as you go. One of the stipulations of the placement is that Hanna visit a concentration camp survivor, and that isn't easy either.

Most coming of age stories involve adolescents, and Hanna is hardly that. However, she does, indeed, come of age in Israel. What she sees and does in Israel changes her present life, and will probably change her future life as well.

We saw this film at the Rochester JCC Hart Theatre, as part of the vaunted Rochester International Film Festival. It will work well on a small screen.

Note: as I write this review, "Hanna's Journey" has a terrible IMDb rating of 6.3, I don't understand why people rated it so low. It's much better than that.