The Restless Hungarian

Tom Weidlinger's Restless Hungarian opens as a tale of Jewish struggle in the lead up to WWII, but quickly focuses on the adventurous life brought about by Paul's (the director's father) sheer force of will. Like the brewing war in the foreground, Paul's life unfolds before us in fits of psychological battle, tactical retreat, and strategic armistice.

The participation of the director as both biographical orator and emotionally entangled character within the story could have detracted for the precision of the telling. To the contrary, Tom's personal quest for understanding seamlessly intertwines with his father's story. In the end, both men will be judged well by the feats they achieved.

The documentary was, for me, a transformative experience. It is both personal and universal, touching key turning points in 20th century history as well as the hopes, fears and aspirations of the filmmakers family. There is also here a story of intergenerational healing - of reaching back into the suffering experienced by parents and grandparents and acknowledging those experiences in a way that they, themselves, could not articulate.

Do not watch this film is you are merely looking for entertainment. Do watch it if you are open to a profound experience. It is unlike any other film I have seen.

The film begins by providing both a historical and personal view of the Jewish diaspora at the outset of WWII. It explores the complex relationships the Restless Hungarian, Paul Weidlinger, had with his family and some of the most influential artists, architects and engineers in the latter half of the 20th century including Moholy-Nagy, Le Corbusier, Dubuffet and many others who greatly influenced modern day art and architecture. The film also details the engineering relationship Weidlinger had with the Rand Corporation and their efforts to design and build structures that would protect U. S. nuclear missiles. I highly recommend this historical and deeply personal film.

This is a deeply moving film, and while it's a family story, specific to its own time and circumstance, it touches a universal nerve. In addition, the filmmaking is masterly. There is remarkable archival footage that never hammers the viewer with trite or clichéd meanings. Also remarkable are the sites (or remnants) on three continents of the Weidlinger family's landmarks. And most remarkable for me are the eloquent reenactments of family scenes: like rooms in a dollhouse with a minimum of decor, they convey the maximum of psychic distress. They're mysterious, in some cases almost mystical. In fact, the entire film has an aura of mystery and beauty.

In this riveting hybrid documentary, filmmaker Tom Weidlinger pursues his quest to truly know and understand his father, Paul, a successful, Hungarian-born structural engineer who helped build many of the great architectural works of the 20th century. At the heart of the enigma the film attempts to resolve is the issue of Paul Weidlinger's hidden Jewish identity, which Columbia University film professor Annette Insdorf references as a "growing sub-genre of Holocaust cinema." Employing a wealth of archival material and interviews with his father as well as those who knew him in Hungary, France, Bolivia and the U. S., Tom Weidlinger documents his father's perception of himself as a self-invented, creative intellectual, radically distanced from traditions - Jewish and otherwise -- despite the wartime suffering of his Hungarian Jewish family. Was this a flight or a rejection, a disguise or mere disinterest in his origins? Did his metamorphosis contribute to his constructing an edifice around his emotional self? And what, finally, was his grown son supposed to do with this discovery?

Dramatic reenactments of childhood memories, enhanced by the filmmaker's thoughtful, introspective narration, help to explore the space between Paul Weidlinger's public persona, his factual accomplishments and his emotional impact on his family. Ultimately, the film ponders how one integrates the infinite complexity of a parent's life -- including their impact on our own.

Building on the research for his 2019 book, "The Restless Hungarian: Modernism, Madness and the American Dream", the film is just as informative but far more emotive, yielding a deep personal payoff at its exquisitely narrated end.