Leon the Pig Farmer

When even Woody Allen seems to have given up making overtly Jewish movies, Leon is a novelty. OK, some of the comedy borders on stereotype, but, I can tell you from experience, it's still true. The confusions of identity, culture, heritage etc are a ready source of sardonic wit. And it's not just a film for Jewish people either - anybody with experience of cultures centred around insane families will appreciate it. In my circle, Indians, Italians and the Irish seem to have a particular affinity. On a sadder note, the film features mark Frankel, whose untimely death was potentially a major loss to the Brit industry.

Jewish guilt is not a topic that I see portrayed much in movies, but "Leon the Pig Farmer" does a good job with it. Leon Geller (Mark Frankel) is a Jewish estate agent in London who one day discovers that he was the product of artificial insemination; his real father is a pig farmer. Going off to meet his "other" family, Leon has more than a few surprises! They did an interesting job here. True, non-Jews might not get all the jokes, but it's funny nonetheless. And I guess that we sometimes forget that there ARE Jews in England. Anyway, you might see if you can find this movie. You'll probably like it.

Oh, and by the way, that one character was played by Burt Kwouk (Kato from the "Pink Panther" movies).

Poor Leon discovers a past that goes against everything that is Jewish. It takes a while for the story to kick start but once you get going, you fall into the flamboyance of the humour, enjoying the belly laughs, and maybe the dish as well.

A young Jew, who was confused enough about what kind of person he was already, discovers that he is in fact the result of artificial insemination, and that his biological father is a Yorkshire pig farmer. So of course he has to agonise about things, and so do one or two other people. Now that I come to think of it, so does everybody.

It's a comedy and I didn't get any of the jokes. -Oh, I UNDERSTOOD the jokes, well enough - it's not as if they rely on the more obscure aspects of Jewish theology or culture. (Maybe some of them did. These would have been the jokes I didn't understand; indeed, didn't even notice.) I admit that there was this one guy in the cinema who chuckled every so often and he seemed to disprove my theory that one must actually be a Jew in order to find this film amusing. He didn't LOOK Jewish.

That's about the kind of joke you can expect.

If you don't find any of it funny enough to actually laugh at, and to be frank I don't see how you could, there's still something endearing about the oddness of it all. I never worked out if I was meant to be laughing at the central character's angst or angsting along with him. I did neither: but I found myself liking him all the same.

Very enjoyable, funny, quirky and a little odd. All in all an entertaining way to waste an hour and a half or so. It's starting to look a little dated however, this does not detract from what is a very entertaining film. There are a lot of films brit flicks that are more highly rated and nowhere near as good.