Winter Journey

Late actor Bruno Ganz's final performance is an impressive farewell to the screen, and to the world of the living. He plays a real figure, the musician George Goldsmith, confronted by his son in order to learn the truth about their escape from Germany's Nazi Occupation. Interviewed by Martin Goldsmith, the real son of the musician, based on the two books he wrote about his parents' escape, the film is a hybrid of faux documentary and dramatization, beautifully composed, narrated and executed. Director Anders Østergaard conducts the material with sensitive, firm and highly emotional tones, focusing on the profoundly melancholic reactions displayed by Ganz's character as he is haunted by memories, both uplifting and traumatic. Stunningly edited, and shot in various forms, the film does a great job putting up the pieces of a puzzle: George somehow traverses a personal crisis, where he denies his Jewish origins. At that moment, the film surges as a relevant and inspiring portrait of the importance of Jewish art and culture, and its continuous effect and influence over Germany and other nations, with their talented operas, concerts, literature and arts in general.